A SHORT PRIMER ON THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been called one of the most sweeping and costly changes in the US healthcare marketplace with an estimated cost of approximately $1 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office. The ACA is supposed to be financed by cuts in Medicare spending and new taxes. The legislation was designed to add 20 million new people to Medicaid and another 16 million through Affordable Insurance Exchanges in the 50 states. This is a summary of a talk about how some specific aspects of the ACA would likely affect technology transfer of new biomedical inventions.