Medscape Medical News

By: Marcia Frellick

Tuesday’s midterm elections resulted in changes in leadership and passage or denial of ballot initiatives that have implications for healthcare nationwide.

Here are five of the major areas affected.

1. Medicaid. The red states of Nebraska, Idaho, and Utah approved Medicaid expansion.

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Joan Alker, MPhil, research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy in Washington, DC, told Medscape Medical News, “It was a very good night for Medicaid.” “Most importantly, the huge, draconian cuts that the last Congress proposed to the Medicaid program will not happen in the next 2 years,” she said.

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2. Affordable Care Act. With the House of Representatives now controlled by Democrats — and with Republicans still short of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to override a filibuster — efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) likely will stall. “We’ve gone from a situation where the repeal of the ACA was an organizing principle for the Republican Party for many years to a situation now where that likely cost them the House,” Alker said. “For the next 2 years anyway, we won’t see efforts to repeal the ACA and cut Medicaid significantly. That’s really an amazing trajectory.” She said she has worked in healthcare for two decades and the concern for healthcare coverage “is at an all-time high.”

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