Edward A. Zelinsky, Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University, questions the significance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in his post The Bi-Partisan Rhetoric of Health Care Apocalypse is Wrong on the OUPblog.

Professor Zelinsky writes:

First, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, while significant, is more incremental in nature than either side cares to acknowledge.

Second, many provisions of the Act have delayed effective dates.  It is questionable whether future Presidents and Congresses will permit these provisions to go into effect as written.

Third, the Act merely postpones many tough decisions which must be made about health care and about health care cost control in particular.  At its core, the Act’s efforts to control health care costs are tepid and deferred.  Indeed, for the long run, the Act is likely to exacerbate the nation’s problem of health care costs and will thus require further confrontation with this intractable problem.

I am in agreement on points two and three,  but skeptical on the first point. As always, his comments are thought-provoking and informative.