The counterplan more effectively strengthens business confidence---it solves uncertainty
Hwang et al ’15 (Ann Hwang – MD @ the University of California, San Francisco, former Director of Health Care Policy and Strategy for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, where she played a leading role in the implementation of the state’s major health care initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act, payment and delivery system reform and the Commonwealth's State Innovation Model grant, Visiting Fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. Ann has also served as a Senior Health Policy Advisor to the Massachusetts Health Connector, advised states on ACA implementation as a Senior Consultant with the Wakely Consulting Group and worked on HIV and global health issues as a legislative aide to U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin. Joshua M. Sharfstein. Christopher F. Koller, “State Leadership in Health Care Transformation Red and Blue,” 28 July 2015, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2411296)
With ample motivation to improve health care and many tools at their disposal, state leaders can create a local political moment and set an agenda for reform. Governors, regardless of political party, can form effective alliances with business leaders concerned about rising health care costs, health care executives worried about the future of payment, and patient advocates concerned about quality of care. With hard work and an appreciation for its complexity, health system transformation may be one of the few policy areas in which local culture trumps national political affiliations when it comes to designing a reform model and deploying state levers for implementation.