I believe the dust has settled.  Candidates from Park Ranger to President can now walk from their car to Duncan Donuts without waiving and smiling, just in case a potential constituent may be within a quarter mile. 

So, where are the highs and lows?  Highs are most households without a political junkie.  No more ads!!   Don't you sort of miss them?  Lows are the Radio and T.V stations; the gravy train has left the station.  Imagine running a business where you can just name the price; no haggling. 

Suffice to say, the President Elect and President, generally speaking, approach issues and solutions from polar opposites. 

We hear all about the first 100 days; not sure where that came from; most of the time, we refer to 90 or 120 days.  That's the way our calendar works. 

While we are interested in the overall welfare of our country, I'm guessing that this audience, at this point in time, has a singular interest; how much longer will we have to deal with the so called Affordable Care Act?  As much as we might like a quick expiration date, what we don't want to do is repeat the implementation plan.  Good intentions, but muddled from the beginning.  Crashed through Congress, displaced current insureds, spent lot's of money, but ultimately provided access to health insurance to millions of people who for any number of reasons were outside the system. 

Untangling it must be done in a way that doesn't make things worse.  Think of all of the moving parts, insureds in the middle of a claim, providers who have treated patients and not been paid by the insurance company, insurance companies who have issued coverage and not been paid by the government or the policyholder.  The employees of the hospital, doctor, lab or carrier, IRS, DOL, insurers, soft ware companies, etc, who were hired in the wake of ACA; what about me ?   

From the outside in, it is easy for us to name what should be done, now.  There are starting points, for instance, cancelling the regulations that cause the employer to keep employment under 50 employees,  return the definition of full time  employees to 40 hours and discontinue the convoluted employer reporting requirements would be a good place to start.     

Always easier to crank things up than wind things down.  As much as we might want immediacy, best to be prudent.  Open enrollment for 2017 is ongoing and all of the regulatory obligations for 2016 are still in place.  We should all expect to comply.   

We don't see some of the basic fundamentals changing; such as the use of pre-existing condition limitations.  However, traditional insurance enrollment rules might be applied to keep the product affordable.  Medicaid, insurance for low income workers, might absorb some of the ACA insureds who now receive a subsidy, but Medicaid is a shared expense between the state and federal governments.   Governors already have budgets to worry about; don't like becoming a dumping ground.  Lot's of constituencies who deserve respect and need to be served.  Wind it down in a fair way, keep it out of the courts and move on to a sustainable solution. 

Our vote would be for patience, make sure that the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming towards us. 

As we learn details, we will vet them out and pass along.