Gino J. Pazzaglini: Repair, improve ACA

As a retired hospital CEO and current board member of both a nonprofit national health system and a nonprofit health insurance company, I have been asked my insider view of Affordable Care Act and Trump-led “repeal and replace” efforts now underway.

Health care delivery and health care payments both need reform. Obamacare succeeded on some but fell short on others. Millions of uninsured Americans got coverage and began getting health care in more appropriate ways rather than using ERs for untreated conditions, etc. Persons with pre-existing conditions could no longer be treated like untouchables by insurance companies.

However, Obamacare failed to create a sustainable health insurance marketplace which solved the perplexing problem of making insurance attractive and cheap to uninterested healthy people, while creating affordable insurance for those needing health care services costing 10, 20 or 30 times their premium payments.

Don’t just slam Obamacare ... repair it, or replace it with something better. We should all welcome any health care reforms which reshapes how health care is delivered and paid for. Health care which promotes highest quality at lowest cost (value) rather than numbers (volume), which doesn’t bankrupt families, which is accessible to all, rich or poor, young or old, everywhere in our United States.

This story was originally published March 18, 2017 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Gino J. Pazzaglini: Repair, improve ACA."