Monday, October 3, 2016

In Which We Shift Gears A Bit Here -- As We Last Did -- In 2008; And 2010. . .


It is becoming increasingly likely that some adjustments will be required, to the general scheme of US health care delivery laid out by the ACA of 2010 (or Obamacare, if you prefer). I won't offer my long-form political analysis as to why that is so, other than to say that Republicans have regularly used various means to try to cut off the funding (or more precisely, the federal subsidies to states and insurers) for the measures enacted.

So -- in the coming weeks here, as we last did in 2008, and 2010 -- we will start to make predictions (and maybe even some suggestions, as we did in 2007, live in Philadelphia) about what the 45th President's "tweaks" should/will look like. [Back in 2007, in Philly, we all favored the public option, but I think correctly realized it wold not pass muster in a red Congress. I think that risk has mitigated somewhat -- but we will have to see, after the November US House races are settled.]

In any event, I decided to get started on this predictive project a little early, given that overnight, The New York Times is also suggesting that change will be needed, here. Here's a bit of that:

. . . .The departing president, the woman who seeks to replace him and nearly one-third of the Senate have endorsed a new government-sponsored health plan, the so-called public option, to give consumers an additional choice. A significant number of Democrats, for whom Senator Bernie Sanders spoke in the primaries, favor a single-payer arrangement, which could take the form of Medicare for all. . . .


I'll take a week or three to collect my thoughts, and then begin to post on them, occasionally, here.

Onward -- on a gray but decidedly optimistic fall morning [and not just because Alec Baldwin delivered an Emmy-worthy Trump on SNL!]. . . .

In truth, I am grinning widely, as I look ahead, at large and exciting changes looming at my own firm, and thus am put in mind of how my practice may change in the life sciences, more generally, in 2017 and beyond. So it all flows in synchronicity -- as the Universe ever does (if we are perceptive enough, to stop and listen. . . carefully -- as she sings sweet, she sings low, but she does sing, indeed). Smile.

नमस्ते

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