What’s Different This Time: New Healthcare Reform Ideas
Several times in American history, Presidents have aimed to reform the nation’s healthcare system only to find strong opposition from interest groups. Early movements began with Teddy Roosevelt who campaigned on a pledge to institute universal care, which was never fulfilled; Harry Truman sought to extend healthcare reform into his Fair Deal legislation but had to compromise with Congress. As American private medical technology improved vastly over the past decades, America’s hospitals and medical schools have been widely recognized as among the top in the nation.
President Lyndon Johnson finally succeeded in major health legislation in 1965 by passing Medicare legislation to provide extended coverage to low-income families. While the program has been vastly revised in successive legislation, it remains a core part of American public policy today, and the social safety net was extended further in 1985 with passage of COBRA health care benefits for the unemployed (http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm). In the past two decades, a number of major reform efforts have met strong opposition, including the Clinton health reform effort of 1993 and President Bush’s efforts to create medical savings accounts. While President Bush did not achieve universal success, his Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare for senior citizens. Today’s healthcare reform debate has incorporated many of the ideas and lessons of this history, and now brings new perspectives on reform.
Health Policy Ideas Today
Health policy scholars are actively working on incorporating the latest research into modern health reform efforts. The goal is to provide a framework for more cost effective quality care, working with hospitals, insurers and government officials to create consensus. While there are a number of approaches to reform, major efforts to reduce the costs of health care relate to better statistical analysis and record keeping of treatment options. Currently, doctors are allowed to select a patient’s course of treatment according to insurance guidelines, although research has suggested that independent analysis should also play a role in determining which treatments are optimal.
Current Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag has been a strong proponent of Independent Advisory Panels which provide objective, independent reviews of varying treatment options. For publicly based health services, incorporating the latest research into treatment plans is a core part of ensuring the most cost effective treatment available. The OMB is also working on tax reform issues related to providing incentives for medical professionals to deliver cost effective care and tax incentives for those who deliver effective plans (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081902261.html).
February 15th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
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