[{"document_url": "https://wdet.org/posts/2017/01/09/84477-what-would-obamacare-repeal-mean-for-michigan/", "unformatted_src": "/media/daguerre/2017/01/09/7bd4f74e35b1570215c5.jpeg", "src": "https://wdet.org/media/daguerre/2017/01/09/7bd4f74e35b1570215c5.jpeg", "formatted_filename": "bd f e b c"}, null, {"document_url": "https://wdet.org/posts/2017/01/09/84477-what-would-obamacare-repeal-mean-for-michigan/", "unformatted_src": "/media/daguerre/2016/06/04/67cfa3106408b4e3bdef.png", "src": "https://wdet.org/media/daguerre/2016/06/04/67cfa3106408b4e3bdef.png", "formatted_filename": "cfa b e bdef", "rendered_width": 150, "rendered_height": 150}, null, {"document_url": "https://wdet.org/posts/2017/01/09/84477-what-would-obamacare-repeal-mean-for-michigan/", "unformatted_src": "/media/daguerre/2016/06/04/d35e88c9cb95ede0edea.png", "src": "https://wdet.org/media/daguerre/2016/06/04/d35e88c9cb95ede0edea.png", "formatted_filename": "d e c cb ede edea"}, null]
“The current system is not working great… But there are 20 million people who have gotten coverage.”


Republicans in Congress say their first priority in the new year is to repeal the federal health care law.

They voted many times to repeal Obamacare over the past several years, only to see those efforts vetoed by President Obama. But soon they’ll have a Republican in the White House, one who campaigned aggressively on repealing the health care law.

What would this mean for patients, hospitals, and insurers? What would it mean for people in Michigan, especially the hundreds of thousands of people who get their insurance through the state’s Medicaid expansion? And what — if any — replacement plan will we get?

Detroit Today host speaks with Paul Demko, health care reporter for POLITICO, about what’s likely to happen to Obamacare under a Trump administration.

“The current system is not working great,” says Demko. ”But there are 20 million people who have gotten coverage,” though the law. He says that creates a difficult situation for the GOP, especially if they don’t have a specific plan to replace the law.

Henderson also speaks with Marianne Udow-Phillips, who directs the University of Michigan’s Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. She’s also the former director of the Michigan Department of Human Services under former governor Jennifer Granholm.

“Part of challenge Republicans in Congress have… is that insurers don’t know what to expect,” says Udow-Phillips. “They can’t plan,” which creates another political problem from moving forward with a repeal-and-replace plan.

Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation, including callers who question the need for healthy people to subsidize unhealthy people, and a caller who says the health care law saved her life.





Image credit: Elizabeth Garrett

