Hofstra University: State of HOPE – Health of Our Nation

HEMPSTEAD, New York, Nov. 18 -- Hofstra University issued the following news:

Politics and healthcare in the United States are inextricably linked. That's according to a group of health and policy experts assembled for the latest installment of Hofstra University School of Health Professions and Human Services' ongoing series, The State of H.O.P.E.

The panel discussion "The Health of Our Nation" featured Meena Bose, PhD, executive dean for Public Policy and Public Service Programs at the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs; Julius Wool, adjunct assistant professor, Department of Health Professions; Wendy Darwell, vice president and chief operating officer of Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State, LLC; and Dr. John E McDonough, DrPH, MPA, professor of practice at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The discussion was moderated by the former New York state Senator Kemp Hannon, who is a health policy fellow at Hofstra.

Here are some of the insights the panel shared with students.

Health policy is more complicated--and more political--than we might at first assume.

"Often, when we're discussing healthcare policy, we tend to focus on the clinical care aspect of health," said Wool. "But we need to look at all of these [other] factors. And what is the view of the two [political] parties?" Wool discussed the policy positions of both President Trump and President-elect Biden. Those positions, in combination with Republican and Democratic party platforms, provide a glimpse of what the future of healthcare might look like.

The voting public cares deeply about healthcare-related issues.

"I would say that one point that's particularly interesting as we look at healthcare is that in the past decade, the importance of healthcare as a policy issue has increased," said Bose. She discussed how, over time, the public's interest in healthcare policy has intensified. While stances tend to be polarized, she contends that it's possible for consensus to form.

The Affordable Care Act is about more than pre-existing conditions, although that is an important component.

"This was all part of the delicate balance of the ACA," said Darwell. "It is very hard to start picking those pieces apart and still preserve the elements that consumers like." She went on to describe how policymakers crafted the ACA to increase the number of healthy people on insurance rolls. This step was necessary to provide insurance companies with a means of offsetting coverage of pre-existing conditions and offering more rigorous insurance plans. "That's why we had the individual mandate," said Darwell. "All of these things were balanced against each other to make the ACA work."

Even with the Affordable Care Act, a Medicare fiscal cliff is approaching.

"The next president is going to face a Medicare financing crisis," said McDonough. The Affordable Care Act extended the Medicare fiscal cliff out to 2030. But because the law is currently before the Supreme Court, there's some concern, said McDonough, that a Supreme Court decision striking down the law could spell disaster for Medicare--and, as a result, impact hospitals, doctors, and other segments of the healthcare sector. McDonough doesn't necessarily see the Supreme Court acting in such a broad way.