All You Need for Major Healthcare Reform
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Related subjects: Healthcare Policy, J.E. Robertson, Legislation, Obama administration, U.S. Economy, U.S. Law, U.S. news, U.S. Politics Comments Off
There is talk in the House of Representatives that a “reconciliation patch” could allow the US Senate to pass a small amendment to the Senate healthcare bill, in connection with a budget reconciliation measure, could allow the Senate to provide the House with an overall bill that could pass the House of Representatives. If the Senate is able to make those necessary adjustments, there could be a comprehensive healthcare reform package passed and signed into law in the coming weeks.
With all the rhetorical battling over what exactly that reform should consist of, it may be necessary to simplify the political conversation a bit. One way to do so would be to get back to basics: for a new healthcare reform package to be a success, it would have to accomplish a few key goals, many of which are far more serious and far-reaching than the more controversial and divisive “public option” issue. Here are just a few:
- A definitive end to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions;
- A total ban on dropping insurees from coverage due to illness or infirmity;
- Strong, low-cost exchanges that allow consumers to buy high-quality, affordable health insurance;
- Legal permission to open regulated multi-state insurance markets;
- A reinstatement of all federal anti-trust laws against insurance monopolies or oligopolies;
- A regulatory consumer protection mechanism to prevent collusion and price-fixing;
- A legislative basis for launching non-profit insurers or publicly backed insurance plans;
- A ban on linking stock value to “medical loss ratio” (rewarding denial of treatment)…
Any bill that does these things, whether it does so through heavily funded mandates, unfunded mandates, in conjunction with new taxes or by way of new agencies, consumer-protection staffing or existing anti-trust laws, will have a serious impact on the major price-inflating flaws in the American healthcare system. Markets can adjust to new cost projections, if circumstance requires them to adjust. The key to reform is making sure the new priorities are part of the markets that govern pricing, coverage and even treatment.
As Pres. Obama said in his exchange with the Republican Congressional caucus last week, “if you say, ‘We can offer coverage for all Americans, and it won’t cost a penny,’ that’s just not true. You can’t structure a bill where suddenly 30 million people have coverage, and it costs nothing.”
Republicans had claimed their proposal would do that; the fact is no “credible economists” would support the Republican claims, so in order to meet the goals of all those interested in healthcare reform, the bills passed by Congress have had to find ways to pay for reform; whether we like it or not, we can’t solve the healthcare crisis responsibly without something that helps to pay for it, and we can’t leave it unsolved. The early months of 2010 are the time when Democrats and Republicans have an absolute moral responsibility to find a way to achieve the above-stated goals.
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