Former HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, spoke at the World Health Care Congress and touched on many key themes in healthcare, including the upcoming tax law changes that will repeal the individual mandate penalty, according to MedPage Today.
Dr. Price was reportedly critical of the efforts to repeal individual mandate penalties without a plan in place to keep ACA health marketplace plans affordable. For this year, the silver plans on the ACA marketplace had a 36 percent cost increase, and costs could continue to increase if young and healthy people leave the marketplace.
"There are many, I'm one of them, who believe [individual mandate repeal] actually will harm the pool in the exchange market because you'll likely have individuals that are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently that drives up the costs for other folks within the market," he said.
While the GOP has been unable to repeal and replace the ACA in its entirety, Dr. Price said he thought any repeal efforts in the future would "likely be regulatory rather than legislative," according to MedPage Today, and change likely wouldn't come until after the November midterm elections.