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 Top executives who gathered in San Francisco this week for the
annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference, say that while President
Obama's signature domestic policy achievement may well be tweaked,
it is too entrenched to be removed.
The Obama administration said in November that it aims to have over
9 million people enrolled in government-backed federal and state
health insurance marketplaces in 2015, their second year of
operation. Another 10 million have enrolled for coverage under an
expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor.
Opponents of the law in the newly-elected Congress, now dominated by
Republicans, seek to replace Obama’s Affordable Care Act with their
own healthcare reforms. Some are betting that the U.S. Supreme Court
strikes down the federal tax subsidies helping the uninsured buy
coverage in 36 states.
For private health insurers and hospitals, the addition of millions
of new covered patients has helped buoy their profits. Drugmakers
have benefited from the increase in the number of patients eligible
for reimbursement of prescription medications.
Repeal of the Affordable Care Act "is not a possibility," George
Scangos, chief executive officer at biotechnology company Biogen
Idec Inc, said in an interview. "They would somehow have to explain
to millions of people that they will lose health insurance."
Aetna Inc, the third biggest health insurer, said it is talking to
Republicans and Democrats about a possible "grand bargain" to
salvage Obamacare if the Supreme Court up-ends the healthcare law
later this year.
"Blowing up the (Affordable Care Act) is like shutting down the
government," Aetna Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini told a
small group of investors. "So we are having conversations on both
sides of the aisle about what ... things you change in the ACA, what
we could introduce, about how to make a grand bargain should the
Supreme Court decide."
TRANSITION PLAN
The Supreme Court is due on March 4 to hear oral arguments in the
case, with a ruling expected in June.
"We're working on a proposal to lay out the transition, to make sure
we can deal with this effectively and quickly," said Senator John
Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
"Putting aside the Supreme Court challenge, I don't see a veto-proof
majority" in Congress to overturn the law, said Merck & Co Inc Chief
Executive Officer Kenneth Frazier. "I would expect changes in the
structure of the law, not a wholesale repeal."
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Some key changes Republicans are expected to target include
Obamacare’s employer mandate, which requires businesses with at
least 50 full-time workers to offer health coverage to their
employees or pay a penalty, according to congressional aides and
lawmakers.
Republican lawmakers also want to change the law's definition of
"full time" as any employee who works 30 hours a week or more,
provisions that compensate health insurers for market losses and an
excise tax on medical devices, including the machines that produce
CAT scans and magnetic resonance images.
The strategy around replacing Obamacare was expected to be a topic
this week during a meeting of Republican leadership in Pennsylvania,
congressional aides said.
Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, which oversees the law’s implementation, said that
Republican efforts to replace Obamacare are happening “despite
increasing evidence that the law is working.”
A Gallup survey showed that the percentage of Americans without
health insurance fell 4.2 percentage points to just under 13 percent
at the end of 2014.
"I don't think it will go away," said Jean-Jacques Bienaimé, Chief
Executive Officer at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. "There will
probably be some adjustments." He said the ACA has helped companies
like BioMarin that specialize in drugs for rare diseases because it
prohibits lifetime caps on reimbursement, even for expensive
medications.
(Additional reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Michele
Gershberg, Bernard Orr)
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