In the midst of a major battle in Washington over the future of healthcare reform, a new report by the Institute for America's Future shows that the public supports a mixture of public-private health plans similar to that proposed by President Barack Obama.
Frank Clemente, a consultant to the Institute for America's Future (IAF) and lead author on the study, found that 73 percent of those rresponding want a choice between private and public health insurance.
Obama, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and other lawmakers have proposed a framework for reforming the healthcare system that would allow Americans to keep their employer-provided coverage or, if they don't have such coverage, obtain it through a public or private insurance plan that is available through a "national health insurance exchange," where plans would compete for members.
Like the public fee-for-service Medicare plan, the new public health insurance plan in this exchange would be managed by the federal government but would pay private healthcare providers to deliver care.
According to Clemente, public plans control costs better than private ones. For starters, Medicare has a 2 percent administrative cost, compared to public health plans at 12 percent. Secondly, Medicare has market leverage to negotiate lower provider costs.
The study was based on data comparing Medicare fee-for-service to private health insurance.
At a press conference Thursday, Richard Kirsh, director of Health Care for America Now, said the study confirms that the public likes the idea of a private-public plan. "It gives them peace of mind and they also believe it will control costs," he said.
The report comes as healthcare reform efforts took a beating this weak with the decision by Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to withdraw his nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services and White House healthcare reform efforts. Due to a tax indiscretion, Daschle dropped out of the running, disappointing many who felt he was the perfect man for the job.
Obama is working on replacing him even as his economic stimulus package faces obstacles in the Senate. The bill proposed by the House has more than $100 billion slated for healthcare measures.