Health IT

Keckley predicts Occupy Healthcare and more painful change in “reform 2.0” in his last Deloitte memo

Paul Keckley said goodbye to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions today. In his 243rd memo about healthcare reform, he critiqued the Affordable Care Act and the industry’s reaction to it. He also predicted that tight economic times mean the second round of reform will be even more wrenching.

By on September 03, 2013

Paul Keckley said goodbye to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions today. In his 243rd memo about healthcare reform, he critiqued the Affordable Care Act and the industry’s reaction to it:

Health Reform 1.0 got the ball rolling, but the reality is clear: incumbents in the system prefer gradual changes. After all, the status quo has worked well for the industry – profits for many have improved since passage of the ACA. And our longstanding sectarian silos remain largely intact. We still circle the wagons, always defending the status quo while cautioning against radical change.

He also predicted the next chapter of healthcare reform and said that it would be even more painful, due to our slow economic recovery from the great recession:

In Health Reform 2.0, the market will force acceleration of changes that need urgent attention. The market – employers and consumers – will force the system to resolve its intramural tensions – between insurers and providers, primary care and specialty physicians, government regulators and industry operators, innovators and risk takers ready to test new solutions and regulators inclined to make it more difficult than what might seem reasonable.

Health Reform 2.0 means every sector in the system will face uncomfortable changes and for some, redefinition of their role altogether. Discussions about the effectiveness of the health care system on main street will be more frequent, more compelling and unavoidable. Indeed, we’re on the cusp of an Occupy Health Care movement in this country because the health care system has fallen short in responding to the needs and values of its market. While many in the health care system have prospered even since the passage of the ACA, increased numbers of consumers and employers have fallen under the weight of its costs and the ranks of those without coverage is at all-time high. That’s the context for Health Reform 2.0.

He mentions also that he never used the term “Obamacare” and I must commend him for that. It is irresistible shorthand for anyone writing about the ACA, particularly once the administration decided to reclaim and reframe the term. He also avoided “partisan-flavoring to encourage objective analysis of the health care system’s challenge,” and we certainly need more of that kind of conversation.

You can see what’s next for Keckley by signing up for his new weekly memo. I did.