AHPI CEO Tevi Troy Op-Ed Shows Way Forward For Health Care System Under Trump

Federal Health Care Reform, Member-Driven Practice Initiatives

American Health Policy Institute CEO Tevi Troy's coauthored op-ed, "The GOP's Obamacare Strategy Pays Off," published this week in the Wall Street Journal, shows how Congress can work with the incoming Trump administration to revamp the nation's troubled health care policy embodied in the Affordable Care Act, and a second op-ed by Dr. Troy and Institute Chief Economist Mark Wilson highlights how the law has increased employer health care costs.  Along with the Hoover Institution's Lanhee Chen, Dr. Troy points out in the Wall Street Journal piece that the budget reconciliation process utilized by the Republicans following the 2014 elections "demonstrated a legislative path to repeal" of the ACA and that the GOP has "multiple plans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan's 'A Better Way,'" for an appropriate replacement.  Troy and Chen say that most of these plans "focus first on driving down the cost of health care, expanding access to consumer-directed health arrangements like health-savings accounts, and replacing the ACA exchange subsidies with a refundable tax credit or some other tax benefit to help lower-income Americans afford health insurance."  The authors suggest one possible scenario: states would be given greater latitude to pursue Medicaid reforms through executive action, Congress would move immediately on a new budget resolution to repeal the current law, transitional reforms would be implemented to prevent potential ACA coverage disruptions, and finally a more extensive replacement bill would be enacted.  Another op-ed by Dr. Troy and Mark Wilson, "The ACA’s Impact on Employer-Provided Health Benefits," published in RealClearHealth, discusses how the ACA directly and indirectly costs employers $56.6 billion in 2016, or $330 per covered life.  Dr. Troy was also interviewed and quoted by numerous news outlets following the election, including "Can ObamaCare Be Revoked Without Leaving Millions Uninsured?" on Fox & Friends, "Donald Trump Wants to Replace Obamacare. But It's Not That Simple." in the Los Angeles Times, "Repeal Obamacare? Maybe Not, Says Trump" in NBC News, "How Did Trump Turn the Tables? Shocked Experts Explain How He Won the White House" in the New Jersey Star-Ledger, "Obamacare's Future in Critical Condition After Trump's Victory" in the Washington Post, and "Trump Victory Puts Obamacare Dismantling Within Reach" in Politico.