Putting politics aside, the Affordable Care Act has had many positive outcomes. More Americans have health insurance, pre-existing conditions were eliminated as a measure of denying coverage, and adult children can stay on their parent’s healthcare policy until the age of 26. Due to the political climate, a new healthcare bill will likely replace the Affordable Care Act. The following are some of the issues that West Health, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that seeks to enable seniors to successfully age in place, with access to high-quality, and affordable health and support services, proposes that new healthcare legislation address lower the costs of healthcare:

• Reduce the high cost of drugs, procedures, and medical care to decrease premiums, deductibles, and copays.
• Require Medicare to negotiate drug prices on behalf of the American public.
• Give patients information about the cost of their care, before service, so they can make informed decisions.
• Protect the most vulnerable, including older Americans, by reforming – not cutting -Medicare/Medicaid benefits.
• Require healthcare to be paid based on outcomes and quality, eliminating fee-for-service billing, which increases the cost of healthcare.
• Put patients’ interests over excessive corporate profits and political campaign contributions.
• Address the fact that Americans pay more for healthcare and get less than most industrialized countries.

Based on political ideologies, not everyone will agree that the above recommendations will lower the cost of healthcare in the U.S. Three facts that stand out are that our healthcare system is expensive, our outcomes are poor, and there are still millions of Americans who can’t afford health insurance.