Will the Republicans Vote to Repeal the ACA?

(Click the play button on the audio player above to listen to this segment of the ACA panel discussion)

This HCPLive audio panel discussion features:

• Joel Zinberg MD, JD, Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City
• David Sandman PhD, Senior Vice President of the New York State Health Foundation
• Patrick Cronin, New Jersey organizing director for “Get Covered America” a nonprofit with a federal contract to help people sign up for coverage
• Tom Wilson (moderator), a partner at Kaufman Zita Group and former chairman of the NJ Republican State Committee

The panelists look at how well the ACA is working and discuss whether it is politically vulnerable.

The 2014 midterm elections changed the balance of power in Washington. The Republicans now have majorities in both the US Senate and the US House of Representatives. Will that mean the end of the ACA?

On a scale of 1 to 10, the panelists were asked to rate the prospects of repealing the ACA. Cronin said 1 to 2; Sandman said zero.

“The ACA is here to stay as long as President Obama remains the president” Sandman says.

Zinberg sees an alternative to repealing the ACA: he predicts the GOP will make “major parts of the law disappear in the next 2 years.” Those could include removing the employer mandate to provide insurance.

An unpopular tax on medical devices will likely disappear, the panelists agree. “The medical device tax is dead,” says Zinberg.