The Affordable Care Act has been a topic of much debate across the country over the past four years, and the discussion made its way to campus Thursday during one of the University’s 2012 election forums.

Thursday’s forum illuminated issues brought up in the previous night’s presidential debate, including the rising cost of healthcare, the Affordable Care Act and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s actions in Massachusetts.

John Matessino, president and CEO of the Louisiana Hospital Association and one of the forum’s panelists, cited the “skyrocketing salaries” of healthcare professionals and improvements in technology as the main causes of the modern expensiveness of healthcare.

Matessino said the most costly piece of equipment in a hospital in 1975 was a $150,000 X-ray machine.

Now, it’s an MRI or CT scanner, which can cost tens of millions of dollars.

Professor of economics and public administration Jim Richardson, another panelist, also mentioned the aging population, administration and unnecessary tests as a catalyst for higher healthcare costs.

“The problem is defining what tests are unnecessary. There’s a 450-page report on this,” Richardson said.

These types of papers have always been involved in the healthcare system, and contribute to its continuing complexity, Richardson said. He held up a page from a 630-page report.

“You need bifocals [to read this] even if you’re 25,” Richardson said.

Panelists agreed that due to the intricacies and costs of healthcare, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 laid the groundwork for all future healthcare reform.

In order to pay for these growing costs, however, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has turned down federal dollars that could help fund Medicaid.

Matessino said Jindal cannot stop the federal insurance exchange plan set to be implemented in 2014.

The exchange plan — which Matessino compared to shopping for airplane tickets on a website like expedia.com — would exist under either Romney or Obama.

“We will have an exchange, and the federal one might be fine. We just don’t know,” Matessino said.

Panelist and Executive Vice President of the Louisiana Hospital Administration Sean Prados said if Romney were elected, the Republicans would repeal and try to replace the Affordable Care Act, but it would cost too much money to completely remove.

Prados also pointed out that hospitals are the only businesses in the United States required to provide service to the consumer by a law passed under Republican President Ronald Reagan.

Matessino said the point of these forums is to discuss current political issues in a forthright way.

“We will have an exchange, and the federal one might be fine. We just don’t know.”