ST. LOUIS, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Despite its divisiveness, healthcare reform legislation did not play a major role in the midterm elections, a U.S. professor says.
Timothy D. McBride, professor and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, says the United States is still more or less a 50-50 country on health reform.
"About half the country really dislikes the reform law, and those voters were likely to vote Republican in this election, but in all likelihood they would have done so anyway. Similarly, the other half that still favor the legislation would likely have voted for the Democrats anyway," McBride says in a statement. "By far the economy was the most important issue on people's minds, and their votes to throw out incumbents is more of an expression of their frustration with the slow pace of the recovery than it is with health reform."
McBride says he expects the new GOP majority in the House of Representatives will attempt to repeal or slow down the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
"It will not be easy to do this, most especially because the president has the veto pen," McBride says.
