Philo D. Hall, Senior Counsel in the firm’s Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Modern Healthcare, in “GOP Senate Majority May Mitigate Policy Risk for Healthcare Industry,” by Rachel Cohrs and Tara Bannow. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
Republicans appear likely to hang on to control of the Senate as more races were called on Wednesday, and a divided government would mitigate the risk of the most extreme healthcare policy reforms industry feared.
Democrats' healthcare wish list items such as a public health insurance option and allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices will likely be off the table if either party holds a narrow Senate majority. That improves the predictability of financial prospects for health insurers and drugmakers. However, divided government could also make it more difficult for Congress to nimbly respond to courts' decisions on the Affordable Care Act.
Control of the Senate has not yet been officially called, though Democrats' path to a majority is narrow. …
Insurers
A narrow Senate majority in either direction means one thing: status quo. For health insurers, that's the best possible outcome. …
Though Washington had buzzed in recent weeks about the possibilities of a public insurance option and other coverage expansions under an authoritative Democratic trifecta government, those possibilities have evaporated.
"Even if Democrats were to control the Senate, I think there are not enough individual Democratic senators who would feel they had a mandate to pursue aggressive coverage expansion," said Philo Hall, senior counsel at Epstein Becker Green.
