2018 Outlook: What healthcare industry insiders are watching in the year ahead

The first issue I would suggest is the potential for either a repeal or significant weakening of the Affordable Care Act. From a public health perspective, the prospect of potentially millions of people losing their insurance is very significant. We know that access to healthcare is correlated to better health. Historically, the public health sector has been a safety net by providing vaccines, treatment for infectious disease, reproductive health services. Those safety-net services have dramatically decreased as more people have gotten insurance. If millions of people lose their coverage, the prior safety net no longer exists in the way that it did. Public health will have to figure out how to address that.