In an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, former CMS administrator Donald Berwick, MD, said he doesn't think healthcare in the United States "will ever go back" to a pre-reform state.
The Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is due to drop any day now, but Dr. Berwick isn't pinning much weight to it.
"There is so much tectonic motion now — the plates are shifting — and I don't think they can go back. I'm speaking now to a lot of communities all over the country and I've not seen one where there isn't major change in motion," he said in the report.
Dr. Berwick said it is most likely the court will strike the individual mandate only if they choose to act at all. "And if the court strikes the law, you may well see the private sector momentum continue and overtake the public sector momentum for a while. Medicare is so big and so important that you really can't get the whole system to move without Medicare's involvement, but Medicare can lead or it can follow," he said in the report.
"If either the court or the Congress choose to back down from this progress then I think Medicare will find itself following in the long run."
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The Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is due to drop any day now, but Dr. Berwick isn't pinning much weight to it.
"There is so much tectonic motion now — the plates are shifting — and I don't think they can go back. I'm speaking now to a lot of communities all over the country and I've not seen one where there isn't major change in motion," he said in the report.
Dr. Berwick said it is most likely the court will strike the individual mandate only if they choose to act at all. "And if the court strikes the law, you may well see the private sector momentum continue and overtake the public sector momentum for a while. Medicare is so big and so important that you really can't get the whole system to move without Medicare's involvement, but Medicare can lead or it can follow," he said in the report.
"If either the court or the Congress choose to back down from this progress then I think Medicare will find itself following in the long run."
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