We've heard a lot from Republicans about how the Affordable Care Act would be a disaster for the healthcare industry, how the medical device tax would drive companies out of the business, how the paperwork requirements alone would be a disaster, etc., etc., etc.
The fifth anniversary of the ACA coincides with the American Association of Individual Investors' review of the top mutual funds for investors over the last five years.
Most of the article after the first few paragraphs is behind a subscription wall, but this brief slice of data from the article listing the top five sectors and their five year annual average rates of return makes the main point:
1. Healthcare: 23.9%
2. Consumer discretionary: 19.5%
3. Industrials: 18.0%
4. Real estate: 16.4%
5. Consumer staples: 15.2%
In the AAII listing of top individual mutual funds, 4 of the top 5 were in healthcare or biotech.
The businesses that supported the passage of the Affordable Care Act understood the implications of the law for their own profitability. That is the reality of political reform in twenty-first century America -- if you don't create winners in the business community, you will have a very difficult time getting healthcare legislation. Obama did this, which is why we have the ACA. Are there better ways of delivering healthcare? Probably, but political feasibility counts for a great deal.