MARCH MARKED the five-year anniversary of the "shock and awe" beginning of our War in Iraq, and all over D.C., the country – and for that matter, the world – there was discussion of its impact. The war has held steady as the top American concern for years, polls confirm.
Healthcare recently dropped behind the economy as a top domestic issue. Harry Greenspun, MD, chief medical officer at Northrop Grumman, said in a recent interview with me, "but if you tease out concerns about the economy, healthcare is right there."
It was right there in a Kaiser Family Foundation released last month on employer healthcare costs that surprised even the experts. The median cost of healthcare out of employers' pockets rose from 8.2 percent in 1999 to 11 percent in 2005.
Right there again for Medicaid recipients, when members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce made moves to block an estimated $20 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next five years. The cuts are slated for this year by President Bush, but the bill would impose a one-year moratorium on seven of them.
"If the administration’s proposed cuts move forward, those most in need will pay the highest price," said committee chairman Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), sponsor of the March bill.
At a recent senate subcommittee hearing, Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said we pay up to one sixth of our Gross Domestic Product on healthcare, but we don't get what we pay for. "When there is no consensus on what constitutes good performance in the health sector, it is not surprising that the debate over health policy is often stymied," she said.
The presidential race, though undoubtedly distracting to progress on Capitol Hill, lends an opportunity for hope. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, considered the leading Democratic candidate for president, has been charged by his opponents as having the audacity to hope.
In a March 18 speech, he said: "This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together."