IT SEEMS MOST EVERYONE is willing to talk about the 800-pound gorilla known as U.S. healthcare spending. But who will really step up and dare to move it? That will likely be the question of the year, particularly as presidential candidates muscle their way to the front.
According to U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, healthcare spending went from 8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in 1976 to 16 percent in 2006. At a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing, Walker said healthcare spending is projected to rise to 20 percent by 2016.
A report issued by the House Committee on Small Business says small employers have faced 8 percent increases in healthcare costs every year since 2001. "High premiums are a serious problem," Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velázquez said at a January hearing. "When small business owners are forced to divert so much of their time and resources to dealing with this, it takes away from their ability to focus on growing their firms and driving the economy."
With healthcare a top domestic issue in the 2008 presidential election, a new study shows that voters are not likely to cross party lines when it comes to reform. According to a January New England Journal of Medicine article, there are "huge differences" between what Republicans and Democrats say should be done to improve healthcare. Author Robert J. Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, said it comes down to the Democrats’ view that government should help with healthcare and a Republican stance that it is an individual responsibility.
Perhaps that is so. The president's 2009 budget request includes $200 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and no plans to address the 10.6 percent Medicare payment cut doctors face in July. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt called the proposal very complex, crafted responsibly in a challenging time.
Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said the president's proposed cuts would have a disastrous impact.
According to the American Medical Association, without a payment fix for doctors, 60 percent of them will be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they take.
Here's a bright spot. In February, the House proposed a bipartisan bill to make U.S. healthcare universal. The American Health Benefits Program (AHBP) Act, proposed by Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), would make the health plan used by federal employees available to all Americans. Authors of the bill claim it would provide a system of portable, continuous coverage that is not tied to an individual’s employment. Under the bill, private insurance companies would be encouraged to develop a range of healthcare packages based on quality, efficiency, service and price.
I wonder what the gorilla thinks of that?