While there is much we do not know about the future of our country’s health care system, one thing is certain — the most significant advances in human health will come from leading academic medical centers that combine top-tier research with high-quality, accessible patient care. Less well recognized is the role of these same institutions in driving innovation throughout our health care system at a time when we most need it.
A hasty repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a well-defined plan to replace or repair it with provisions to safeguard the essential role of institutions such as Stanford Health Care could be disastrous. It is vital to our future that we recognize how much is at stake.
[See: How to Pick a Health Insurance Plan.]
Key provisions of ACA replacement or repair should stand on these basic principles: (1) cover everyone, including the 20 million Americans who now have health insurance because of ACA and those who are still without it; (2) protect the safety net to sustain vital federal and state support until full coverage for all Americans is achieved; (3) maintain sufficient payments to physicians and hospitals to ensure that their doors remain open; and (4) encourage cost-saving innovation throughout our health care system led by those with a track record of finding new solutions.
Academic medical centers can drive changes that will help create better care and outcomes while taking costs out of the system. Stanford Health Care is at the forefront of this transformation. We are innovating across the entire continuum of care, creating new models and tools for when, where and how services are provided. We are partnering with major Silicon Valley companies to make it easier for employees to see a doctor without taking off significant time away from work by operating on-site employee clinics staffed by Stanford Medicine physicians. We are leveraging technology with video visits from home or office and a customized app for anywhere, anytime access to personalized health information. We are building state-of-the-art facilities designed from the ground up for the new era in health care, from community clinics, to outpatient centers, to the new Stanford Hospital nearing completion.
[See: What Your Doctors Wish You Knew.]
These major investments in innovation, in addition to supporting the costs of training the next generation of physicians and pioneering medical breakthroughs, are possible because academic medical centers exist to serve the greater good. Stanford Health Care invests more than $266 million annually in programs that improve the health of our local community. The majority of those funds assist community members who are low income, medically underserved or underinsured.
Despite representing just 5 percent of hospitals nationwide, our nation’s 400 major teaching hospitals provide 35 percent of hospital charity care and 25 percent of hospital stays for low-income Americans. Repealing the ACA without a sufficient replacement would leave patients and their providers in limbo about their ongoing ability to afford care and would create instability throughout the U.S. health care system.
[See: How to Be a Good Patient Wingman.]
Stanford Health Care is committed to providing leadership through continuous innovation and investment that leads to lower costs and advances health for patients everywhere, but we cannot do it in a climate of unpredictable and precarious change. I urge our policymakers in Washington, D.C., to proceed with caution and not rush to repeal the ACA without a comprehensive, carefully developed replacement plan.
More from U.S. News
5 Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Developing Kidney Disease
Creative Ways Hospitals Reach Diverse Populations
How to Prepare Your Body — and Mind — for a Protest
The Stakes Are Too High for Hasty Affordable Care Act Repeal originally appeared on usnews.com
