This Week in Healthcare - March 16, 2007
Hello and Welcome to This Week in Healthcare.
Today we’ll look at the people, policies, and politicians impacting the healthcare debate, and we’ll help you try to understand it all.
Our stories this week:
- President Bush Rejects Healthcare Panel’s Recommendations
- Senate Finance Committee holds healthcare hearings
- California Nurses Union joins AFL-CIO
- Health Insurance Conference Opens Next week
- One expert thinks the VA hospitals are still the best public healthcare model in the country
On Wednesday, the Bush Administration rejected a set of healthcare reform recommendations issued by the Citizens Health Care Working Group. The group was formed in 2003 to start a national debate on providing affordable, quality healthcare to all U.S. citizens. Group members included nurses, business and labor leaders, hospital administrators, and physicians.
The group’s recommendations were released in September of 2006 and urged government leaders to find ways to provide all citizens access to affordable, core health benefits by 2012.
In addition, the report also recommended consumers be protected against high healthcare costs. In a letter drafted to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Health and Human Services Director Mike Levitt said that the President agreed with many of the recommendations however he thought an approach based on consumer choice rather than federal mandates would be better.
According to Levitt, “A nationally determined set of health benefits would put a person’s healthcare in the hands of federal appointees, instead of allowing a consumer to choose the benefits that best fit their needs.”
Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon, who co- wrote the charter that established the group with Senator Orrin Hatch said the administrations rejection of the recommendation was a disappointment.
The Senate Finance Committee held the first in a series of hearings entitled “Moving Toward Universal Coverage” this week.
Lead by Committee Chair Max Baucus, the hearings provided a forum for healthcare industry leaders and policy experts to offer input on changes being considered to address the national healthcare crisis. Witnesses spoke about ways to revise the current healthcare system and agreed that universal coverage would cost the federal government an estimated $100 billion dollars.
Stuart Altman, a leading expert in the field, told the committee it would be better to address the uninsured, before targeting rising healthcare costs. Altman, and others did not think expanding SCHIP, the children’s health insurance program, to include uninsured adults would be a good way to cover more of the uninsured. The hearings will continue over the current legislative session.
The 75,000 member California Nurses Union joined the national AFL-CIO this week.
The news was announced just two days after the AFL-CIO adopted a new health policy statement endorsing a single-payer healthcare system. The new policy supports an expansion of the current Medicare system. A bill called Medicare for All was introduced by Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate’s Health Committee, last year. An alternative bill, using the same name, was also introduced last year. Both bills attempt to provide healthcare to more U.S. residents by expanding the eligibility for Medicare.
Neither bill has yet to be passed by committee. The 75,000 member California Nurses Union joins more than 325,000 nurse members of the AFL-CIO. Experts believe their combined strength may have an impact on the national healthcare reform debate. So far, 245 unions in 40 states have endorsed the Medicare for All bill.
The American Health Plan’s National Policy Conference will open March 22 at the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC.
At the conference, it is expected that key players in the health care policy debate will share their ideas on solutions to the health care challenges facing our nation. Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Agency is scheduled to open the conference with a key note address. Other speakers are expected at the conference include William Novelli, Chief Executive of the 35 million member AARP, and John Castellani, President of the Business Roundtable.
And finally, in an article published in this weeks Boston Globe, one expert argues the VA healthcare system, thought embroiled in a heated controversy, still represents the best public healthcare model in the country.
Drake Bennett writes that behind the reports of squalor and neglect, and soldiers heavily medicated and brain-damaged, the VA hospital system is a model of a single-payer system. Run by a civilian agency, the U.S. Department of Veteran Afffairs, Bennett argues that by many measures, VA hospitals are the best in the country. Optaining healthcare results comparable to privately run facilities at 25 percent less costs.
The agency has been a target of conservative groups for years. This according to recent studies from the Rand Corporation, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a healthcare watchdog organization.
That’s it for This Week in Healthcare. Tune in next week for more highlights, when we’ll look at the people, policies, and politicians shaping the healthcare debate.
If you have healthcare news you’d like to contribute, please send us an email at thisweek [at] Scribemedia [dot] org and we’ll be sure to include it.
I’m John Mikytuck, Thanks for watching, and stay healthy.
Great new graphics! Much more dynamic format. Great information. Thanks!
Well written and presented. John, smile more.