US health care predictions from Steven Burrill

US politics will continue to be characterized by partisanship as the Republican majorities in the House and Senate will look to dismantle unpopular aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration’s landmark health care reform legislation, says Steven Burrill, chief executive of Burrill LLC and Burrill Media in his annual predictions for the life sciences in the new year.

With the power of the veto in President Obama’s hands, serious threats to the law are more likely to come from the judiciary rather than the legislative branch. A decision to come in 2015 in King v Burwell, a case that challenges the legality of tax credits to people who purchased health insurance in 34 states that did not establish their own health exchanges under the law, could affect care to 4.5 million people.

In emerging markets, though, the health care systems of the future will begin to emerge as rapid change will be enabled by new technology. Rather than modernizing existing structures and technology to meet their needs, these systems are being built around new digital technologies that will provide decentralized models of delivery and capitalize on mobile and point-of-care diagnostics.

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