Mass. employers strongly favor changes to Affordable Care Act
Massachusetts employers agree that the federal health care system needs to change, but there is no consensus around what changes to make or how to make them, an Associated Industries of Massachusetts survey found.
The January survey of 162 employers found 43 percent think Congress and President Donald Trump should make changes to the Affordable Care Act, 40 percent want to see the ACA repealed and replaced with another system, and 7 percent would like to see the ACA repealed and not replaced.
"The paperwork for Obamacare is ridiculous and terrifying for the regular person," one unidentified employer wrote in response to the AIM survey, referring to the ACA. "We used to get one bill and now you get a bill from each doctor and have to wait for explanation of benefits and pre-register for everything. They have made health care so many layers it's no wonder the prices are through the roof."
Another employer gave voice to the idea that because the ACA is such a complex set of laws and regulations, Congress should tear it down and start anew.
"Trying to make changes to a 2,700-page bill with over 40,000 pages of accompanying regulations is bizarre. Start over," the employer said.
Eleven percent of responding employers said they want to see the ACA remain in place as is.
AIM President and CEO Richard Lord said the ACA, which was passed into law in 2010, caused upheaval for many small businesses in Massachusetts but warned that an "ill-considered" repeal of the law could put at risk billions of dollars of federal Medicaid funding.
"The expansion of Medicaid is exerting significant financial pressure on the state budget," Lord said in a statement. "Our hope is that policymakers in Washington can agree on some common-sense tweaks to Obamacare that would work to everyone's benefit."
Though the prospects of an ACA repeal appear bright -- Trump ran on the promise of repealing it quickly and Republicans control both branches of Congress -- little is known about exactly how Trump and Congress will dismantle the federal health insurance law or what type of system would take its place.
The idea of dramatic changes to the federal law has not been met with great enthusiasm in Massachusetts, where federal aid for Medicaid expansion and subsidies for the Health Connector are expected to total $29 billion over the next five years.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday that based on his conversations with "a number of folks in D.C." there does not appear to be consensus around what changes to make to the ACA or how to make them.
"There's a lot of conversation and dialogue going on down there right now, but I wouldn't say it's coalesced around any particular set of concrete plans," Baker said.
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