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UWM Hosts Forum to Address Affordable Care Act's Challenges

Saul Loeb, Getty Images

The rollout of the Affordable Care Act has been beset by difficulties at a number of levels, from the website troubles as health exchanges were launched last year, to the news yesterday that only about half of uninsured adults (approximately 4.5 million adults, the population of Spain) have even investigated getting insurance through health exchanges.

And in the middle of all of this is the insurance industry, which is now being told to do much of its business in a new way.  For a second straight year, the UW-Milwaukee College of Health Sciences is convening a leadership healthcare forumto discuss healthcare reform, this year with an emphasis on the insurance industry.

Dr. Chukuka Enwemeka, the dean of the College of Health Sciences, hopes the forum will educate those involved in the health insurance industry what they should be doing in within the Affordable Care Act. He says many people involved are misinformed.

Enwemeka considers this process as “teething pains” for the government. Congress was hesitant in passing this act because they were entering into uncharted waters.

Enwemeka says that while the act's goal is to make sure everyone has health insurance and to make it easy to find health insurance, those who already have health insurance are not necessarily using it because of high co-pays. He hopes the forum will encourage people to look into health care rather than turn away.

“Everyone will influence how things will evolve,” Enwemeka says.

The college’s annual leadership healthcare forum is on Wednesday March 12th at the Italian Conference Center in Milwaukee.