Health-care uncertainty is vexing

No matter how you come at it, the only certainty about the controversial Affordable Care Act is the uncertainty it has created across the country.

For businesses, health-care providers, the insurance industry and consumers, the future of the act is a big question mark.

The question mark is underscored by Congressional opposition and the looming presidential election with Republican candidate Mitt Romney declaring that he will support repeal of the law.

A recent Inter Lake article told how Kalispell Regional Healthcare officials grapple continually with the law and how it will affect their operations.

“We have to be prepared for all eventualities — repeal or go forward,” said Velinda Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the hospital — the Flathead Valley’s largest employer.

The hospital preparation is because Stevens and her management team don’t know how or if the legislation will evolve.

Even if it is left partially or wholly intact, the law is replete with uncertainties in how it will unfold in the real world as it is implemented.

For instance, Kalispell hospital officials are concerned about estimates that 10 to 20 percent of small businesses will drop insurance coverage because it will be less expensive to pay penalties under the law rather than provide employee insurance. Fewer insured people will not benefit the hospital.

They are also skeptical about Montana’s ability to start an insurance exchange because of the state’s small population, meaning that choices for the uninsured may be limited. What may work for densely populated areas may not work in Montana, but it is a blanket law for the entire country.

Kalispell hospital officials say they are pondering the impacts of the law every day. Consider that hospitals across the country are doing the same.

Imagine the consultants and the seminars that hospitals and businesses are turning to in wheel-spinning efforts to plan for the possibilities that may emerge. One can sense that the Affordable Care Act is causing economic paralysis.

And that’s added to the possible expiration of the Bush tax cuts at the end of year — so-called “taxmaggedon” — that also is contributing to paralysis through uncertainty among small businesses and families that would be affected.

In sum, the country’s health-care future needs to be settled after the election for the sake of the country’s economic future.