I attended an event Monday evening where Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker. This was held at the Premier healthcare alliance Governance Education Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Premier invites healthcare leaders from across the country to this annual conference. It’s an opportunity for hospital leaders to learn and share their knowledge with each other.
Clinton gave a wonderful talk about what happened with recent healthcare reform efforts and where we go from here.
He explained that our healthcare system in America costs too much and does too little. He says the way care is delivered needs to be changed, mentioning bundling payments and reforming the way Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements are made to hospitals and doctors as just two examples.
Clinton acknowledges that there are challenges and roadblocks in the way. He says the American public is resistant to these changes because healthcare is complex and can be misrepresented. It is deeply personal and sparks fear and insecurity. He says another issue is that many people just don’t understand what’s in the healthcare reform bills and that’s a problem.
Clinton told the crowd that middle-class America hated the Nebraska deal and he understands why.
Despite the hurdles, the former president says he would still forge ahead and pass some type of healthcare reform this year, explaining that we cannot afford to do nothing.
Bill Clinton echoed what we have been saying on our blog for months. Try to do this thing in chunks, he recommended. This approach could work, but Clinton says it depends on what pieces of healthcare reform you enact first. Healthcare has to be reformed in the right order.
I couldn’t agree more.
Kester Freeman blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.