AHIP CEO Karen Ignagni kicked off Day 2 by addressing the elephant in the room…no Supreme Court ruling today. The fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and “the Mandate” within would have to wait another day. Ignagni went on to remind the conference goers that similar attempts at state-based reform in the mid-90s resulted in 8 failures and no successes. Ignagni noted, “A key point regarding the 1994 reforms is that they were approved without a coverage requirement that brought everyone into the system. This omission sowed the seeds for a rapid and dramatic erosion in Kentucky’s individual insurance marketplace and eye-popping premium increases.”
Regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, there is still a clear need for shifting the cost of the care delivery system from the administration of care to the delivery of health outcomes. Ignagni would like to see a continued or increased focus on Best Practices related to quality, cost and transparency within the end-to-end health care delivery system. Ignagni’s advice to AHIP is continued “Leadership, Innovation and Transparency” as the health care industry transitions into the execution phase of the roadmap for change.
And worth the price of admission alone, Paul Begala and Ari Fleischer were given an opportunity to foreshadow the Supreme Court ruling and offer thoughts on the impact to political climate. Begala was the chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. Fleischer is a former White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush. Now, both are colleagues as political commentators at CNN.
I feel I’m as qualified as anyone to offer a non-partisan overview of the session highlights especially since I’m a non-voting Canadian…
Fleischer felt that either the ACA will be ruled unconstitutional or Mandate alone, which in either case would generate GOP momentum and carry through to November. Balaga suggested that 5 of 9 Republican Supreme Court Justices would ultimately default to partisan alignment and strike down the entire ACA, though the country’s satisfaction with future direction still trending to a second term for Obama.
Stay tuned…
