Decoding what the blue tsunami means for health care

Last night a blue wave broke over the United States of America. Christina Farr sat down with former U.S. chief technology officer Aneesh Chopra, Anomaly Insights CEO Mike Desjadon, Union Healthcare Insight CEO Christopher Kerns, and our own Ruth Reader to talk about how Democrats are poised to change health care now that they have a majority in the House and Senate. Each has different personal politics, but are friends and mutual admirers (dear readers, this is possible!).

The big takeaway: health care has become too expensive and voters are despondent.

“Worse than unaffordable, people feel like there’s actually no real hope,” said Desjadon.

Panelists were united on what they expect to see from Congress:

• Affordable Care Act subsidies will return: bringing back enhanced ACA premium tax credits would be an easy win for Democrats. Though it won’t make health care more affordable, it would bring immediate relief to American citizens who are about to face higher premiums. Panelists say the tax credits could even come back during the lame duck period.
• Walking back OBBB: Panelists agree that it will be hard to unwind the changes brought about through President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. However, there are incremental changes Democrats could bring, including allowing self attestation for new Medicaid work requirements and minimizing obligations for people who qualify as medically frail. Dems may also try to change SNAP cost-sharing provisions.
• Healthcare industry crackdown: The word on everyone’s lips is affordability. Health care costs too much and members of Congress are going to be looking for ways to bring down that cost, especially as it pertains to exploitative practices in the industry. In terms of what key areas they may go after, our panelists say there is bipartisan agreement that pharmacy benefit managers need reform as well as the prior authorization process. It’s not just payers, hospitals are in the cross hairs too.

“Everyone’s going to have to figure out a way to do more with less,” said Chopra, who stoked technology adoption to improve health care access under former President Barack Obama as the White House’s first chief technology officer.

Watch the full conversation below.