Congress has set an ambitious deadline. By the end of June, they want to pass a comprehensive healthcare reform package. Ramping up for this deadline, congressional committees with healthcare jurisdiction are scrambling to hold hearings (and in some cases, more hearings) on the topic over the next few weeks.
One such hearing, held April 22 by the House Ways and Means Committee, offered a microcosm of the battles that may lie ahead. At times the meeting was tense and fraught with outbursts on both sides of the political fence. Committee members regularly interrupted each other, the chairman and the panelists. I couldn't help but think of angry lions snarling over a huge piece of meat. And this was only a committee hearing. Wait until it's up for debate in the full Congress.
Expert witness Uwe Reinhardt, an economics professor at Princeton University, said reform will come down to a point of view: whether healthcare is viewed as a moral right. Currently, that is not clear.
"I do not discern a shared common ethos around healthcare," he said of Americans.
But, he warned, "If you treat healthcare like a social good, like elementary education, for example, then it is unavoidable that the government must administer it."
In other words, the private market can't and won't be focused on social good. It is, by design, meant to focus on profit. Half-way attempts at social good will only eventually buckle, as risk pools shrink and healthy people shy away from purchasing insurance, he said.
Reinhardt, who is an immigrant, said he can’t understand the duplicity of some American views that decry government-run healthcare, when that is exactly what the nation has chosen to use for its veterans.
Kenneth Sperling, global health management leader at Hewitt Associates and the only expert out of five who represented Republican views on the panel, testified on behalf of the National Coalition on Benefits. He said reform must include measures to strengthen employer-based care. He said employer-based care is leading the way on bringing down healthcare costs through a focus on preventative care.
The good news for both sides is that President Barack Obama is pushing for employer-based healthcare that works and government-run plans – something there for everybody. It's fairly certain, however, that pure politics is going to play a snarling role in what lies ahead as Congress faces one of the toughest jobs any Congress has yet to face and succeed: reforming healthcare.