Health care leaders applaud Supreme Court decision on Affordable Care Act

Upstate Medical University President David Smith MD speaks to the media about the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act.
The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act Thursday was mostly good news for Syracuse's academic medical center.
David Smith MD, president of Upstate Medical University, told The Post-Standard he was pleased with most aspects of the federal law, including provisions designed to help prevent obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Smith said he is concerned about a provision that would reduce the federal payments hospitals like Upstate receive in acknowledgment of caring for a disproportionate share of low-income patients. Projected loss of funding will not be offset by the increased number of patients with insurance, Smith told the newspaper, explaining that Upstate relies on the federal money to maintain costly services like trauma care and its burn unit.
In addition, Upstate University Hospital CEO John McCabe MD expressed concern about New York State's commitment to expand Medicaid coverage and said on his blog that "we remain concerned about the loss of dollars to help support our Graduate Medical Education programs. This is the training pipeline for the future healthcare workforce."
Smith talked on YNN about the need for more primary care doctors, telling the television station that "the original provisions to train more doctors and more primary care doctors were stripped from the bill early on. We've got to come back and deal with that as a country," he said. "This state and this country does not have a strategic plan for a health labor force."
Read hospital CEO John McCabe's blog: McCabe's Rounds, Notes from the CEO
Listen to WRVO radio coverage
Read coverage from The Post-Standard
Watch coverage on YNN
Watch coverage on CNY Central
Read about the Supreme Court decision in plain English