Six out of 10 corporate renewal professionals think the healthcare reform law will have a negative impact on economic recovery, according to a new poll. While reducing the deficit, they said, it could toss physicians and other healthcare providers out of work.
A few noted that the law, which guarantees healthcare insurance for tens of millions of Americans in the years to come, lacks measures to reduce healthcare costs.
The poll was released Wednesday by the Turnaround Management Association, a Chicago-based non-profit group of 9,000 professionals in 46 regional chapters who say they are dedicated to restoring corporate value. TMA surveyed its members – including lenders, attorneys, investors, professors, appraisers, trustees, auctioneers, liquidators, government workers and judges – last month.
Of those surveyed who think healthcare reform will have a negative impact, a little more than 35 percent predict a moderate negative impact, while 25 percent predicta significant negative impact, the association said.
"While the actual implementation of key sections of the bill will not take place for months or years, the perception of its impact may be the real near-term drag on the economy," said James B. Shein, professor of management and strategy at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
Michael L. Sandnes, managing director of healthcare at Executive Sounding Board Associates in Baltimore, said, "The national healthcare law was very outcome driven, but ignores the real problem: cutting costs and reducing Medicare's trillion dollar growth."
Some respondents argued that lack of access to health insurance already creates financial calamities, TMA researchers said.
"Hospitals are encountering lower patient volume," said Michael Imber, a director at Grant Thornton LLP in New York. "People are deferring healthcare attention due to lack of insurance, which can result in more acute needs later as their condition deteriorates and they become even more costly to the overall system."
Fourteen percent of those surveyed say the law will have a moderate positive impact on the economic recovery and 7 percent expect no impact. A little less than 20 percent aren't sure, the poll showed.
"Experience shows government regulation tends to increase rather than decrease costs," said William J. Hass. chief executive officer of TeamWork Technologies in Northbrook, Ill.
TMA will discuss healthcare at its spring conference, to be held April 20-22 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers.