Another Obamacare Architect Recognizes Its Unintended Consequences

Dr. Bob Kocher, an Obamacare architect turned venture capitalist, has admitted the law has had a significantly negative unintended consequence:

When I joined the Obama White House to advise the president on health-care policy as the only physician on the National Economic Council, I was deeply committed to developing the best health-care reform we could to expand coverage, improve quality and bring down costs. 

What I got wrong about ObamaCare was how the change in the delivery of health care would, and should, happen. I believed then that the consolidation of doctors into larger physician groups was inevitable and desirable under the ACA.

Well, the consolidation we predicted has happened: Last year saw 112 hospital mergers (up 18% from 2014). Now I think we were wrong to favor it. 

(Bob Kocher, “How I Was Wrong About Obamacare,” Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2016.)

Dr. Kocher joins Dr. Zeke Emanuel as another Obamacare architect who has realized giving the federal government this much power to shape the heath system is not having the outcome he anticipated. Back in 2009 and 2010, Dr. Kocher believed that the consolidation of physicians and hospitals into large health systems would lead to higher quality care at lower cost. As Dr. Kocher notes, the systems are consolidating, but they are not hitting cost and quality targets.

Instead, smaller, physician-led practices do better at such improvements. Now that he is a professional investor in medical innovation, Dr. Kocher sees something that was not apparent when he worked in government. He recognizes that smaller practices are nimbler and more responsive to patients’ needs.

However, practices are consolidating because larger, bureaucratic health systems are better able to comply with the massive regulatory burden imposed by Obamacare. Dr. Kocher invites the federal government to rewrite the rules to allow smaller, nimbler practices to succeed.

Dr. Kocher and other former Obama officials who are now pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities in the health system they wrought are in the best position to advocate for such reform. Unfortunately, it is just not in the nature of big government to favor smaller, nimbler competitors over large, bureaucratic ones.