Thursday March 24 was the Long Island Business News Power Breakfast held at Carlyle on the Green in Bethpage, Long Island . The question of the event as posted was “Healthcare on Long Island-Can We Afford It?”  After attending the event I was left thinking the question of the day should have been “Healthcare on Long Island- What the heck is it going to be?”

The panel included Long Island’s best and brightest in healthcare, including Raymond J. Keating (Chief Economist Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council), Anne D. Shybunko-Moore (President GSE Dynamics Inc.), Thomas McAteer (Aetna Medicaid), Michael Dowling (President/CEO North Shore-LIJ Health System) and Kevin Dahill (CEO Nassau/Suffolk Hospital Council Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association).

The debate and banter was lively to say the least and everyone had fun sharing their own opinion on what we should be doing better to serve the future of healthcare. But the buzz from the crowd afterwards was how “shocking” it was that even these great minds in healthcare could not come together and predict what Healthcare Reform means to Long Island or small business owners.

However, there was a consensus that, for one, the status quo is not working and two, something needs to change. Yet almost one year to the day of Obamacare being passed in Congress, no one really knows what it all means for us!  All of these questions are still up in the air: Will Obamacare pass the legal test?  Will Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) really give us better, low cost care?  And, what should LI business do to prepare for all the new changes?

I was left with one hope as I spoke to some of the attendees and panelists on the way out.  Small business owners like me are not waiting for the fallout.  There are many owners in the room who will have to be creative and roll with the punches to stay alive. With seemingly no help from the government, small business will do what we do best-be crafty and survive!!