Health Politics

Ten years ago we couldn't even agree on the ultimate goal for health reform. Just a day ago, at the American Medical Association's National Advocacy Conference, I heard a whole lot of agreement on where we want to be -covering all Americans, providing better care, and reducing costs.

Finally some proof that fewer and fewer people believe that "America has the best health care in the world!" This claim simply doesn't resonate with Americans who have experienced (or heard about) distressing personal encounters with swamped emergency rooms, medical errors, specialists who don't talk to each other, nursing shortages in hospitals, high prices, etc. etc.

Brief update - As expected, the Pennsylvania House did approve a scaled-back version of Gov. Ed Rendell's health coverage plan this week. Rendell has now embraced the compromise and strongly urged the state Senate—which has been more skeptical about the finances—to pass it. As coverage expansion needs to go hand in hand with insurance market reform, particularly to help small businesses and individuals purchase policies, Rendell is also pushing for an insurance package in the House. AP has the details.

Ezra Klein posts today about what health care wonks seldom talk about - how all the grand blueprints for overhauling U.S. healthcare don't mean much if they can't gather 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. But if you've been following our work at New America, you know that "60 votes" could be our middle name.

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute pointed out that health care costs are out control and spending, projected to rise from about 17 to 20 percent of GDP in less than a decade, is unsustainable. We agree. No health reform proposal will be sustainable without serious efforts to reduce costs and improve quality.

It's no surprise that the economy was the top issue for Mississippi voters in Tuesday's Democratic primary, but health care still resonated. Just over half the voters surveyed by network exit polls cited the economy as their top concern. But one in five said health care was their number one issue -- the same number as the Iraq war. (We would argue that health cost and coverage can be a component of economic anxiety as well).

The Mayo Clinic held a health reform conference this week -- New America's Health Policy director Len Nichols was there and he'll post about it momentarily. But Mayo also released a survey about what the public is thinking about health care. The Health Blog at the Wall Street Journal summed it up, but here are a few interesting snippets:

We read Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) piece in the New York Sun yesterday. While we applaud Senator Coburn’s commitment to reforming our struggling health system and his bill, S.

The Kettering Foundation, along with Public Agenda and the National Issues Forum Institute, held what they billed as a novel experiment in public thinking about health care and the environment this week. We attended the health care event -- a half-hour film of focus groups around the country of ordinary people talking about the trade-offs of health reform, followed by a panel discussion by nine experts in public opinion or public policy (but not necessarily in health policy). They plan on holding more discussions across the country in the coming months.

We certainly laud dialogue on health care -- particularly recognition upfront that it involves tough choices and tradeoffs. One of the pitfalls of previous reform efforts, we think, is that people were asked if they wanted to improve the system but not immediately confronted with all the implications of that choice -- and then they backed off in a panic.

We just spent two days at AHIP’s (America’s Health Insurance Plans) 2008 National Policy Forum, an annual gathering about the challenges facing the industry. Despite the multitude of speakers with markedly different world views, the similarity of the themes was remarkable – and telling. We may have finally reached a point in the health care conversation where we are forced to agree on the fundamentals. Hallelujah.

The common refrains from the choir: