EXPERT ADVISORY

Health care has long been a hot topic in Washington, D.C., and partisan polarization has been a hallmark of most major legislation, from the Affordable Care Act to the One Big Beautiful Bill.

What’s not in dispute: Such “big” policy changes mean big impacts on health care coverage and access to businesses and consumers alike.

On the latest episode of the Business and Society podcast, two University of Michigan experts discuss many topics, including the introduction of work requirements for Medicaid, the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, the Health Insurance Marketplace and the end of subsidies (and corresponding premium hikes) for those ACA plans.

The guests are Tom Buchmueller, professor of business economics and public policy at the Ross School of Business, and Anand Parekh, chief health policy officer at the School of Public Health and senior adviser at the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. They also explore the link between health insurance coverage and decreased mortality, the importance of community health centers, and their experiences seeking bipartisan solutions to healthcare crises.

On the loss of subsidies

“The projections are something like 5 million people are going to lose coverage, and they’re going to be disproportionately self-employed people, gig workers, entrepreneurs,” Buchmueller said. “That has an economic impact beyond health insurance and health care. Having a source of coverage outside a large firm gives people the chance to start out on their own—if they have a business idea to go for it.

“It’s a safety net that if it goes away, you’re going to have some people who say, ‘Maybe I won’t start that business.’ … That’s not going to be good for the economy.”

Contact: [email protected]

On population health factors and national priorities

“If you want to improve population health, you’ve got to focus on prevention, primary care and public health,” Parekh said. “In this country, we spend $5 trillion in the health sector, roughly, and less than 3% of that goes to public health, only about 5% goes to clinical preventive services and about 6%-7% goes to primary care—which is about half of what other industrialized countries spend. Those three categories are not mutually exclusive.

“My supposition is that where this country spends its resources defines its priorities, and its priorities represent its values. It’s really a fundamental question of how healthy of a nation we want to be. We know what we need to do if we want to be healthier. The question is: Is the will there to be healthy? The road map is certainly there.”

Contact: [email protected]

Business & Society is co-produced by Matt Trevor of the Ross School of Business and Jeff Karoub of the Michigan News office. The audio engineer is Jonah Brockman and editorial production is provided by Mads Henke. Listen to all episodes of the podcast.