In the ongoing debate over healthcare reform, which seems to be increasing in intensity as America awaits the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) has endorsed a new study supporting public health insurance.
The study, authored by professor Jacob Hacker from the University of California Berkeley School of Law Center on Health, Economic and Family Security, aims to dispel doubts about President-elect Obama's healthcare reform plan. Obama's plan would build on the current employer-based system while adding public health insurance for the non-elderly, similar to Medicare.
At a Wednesday press conference, Roger Hickey, co-director of the Institute for America's Future, called Hacker's work "an important new report."
The new report builds on Hacker's earlier work, "The Great Risk Shift and Health Care for America," sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute, which, according to Hacker, is the foundation for Obama's healthcare plan.
In both reports, Hacker argues that a public health plan is effective in controlling healthcare costs, as evidenced by Medicare.
"A new public health plan modeled after Medicare could set a new benchmark," he said. "It would encourage private plans to invest in performance and value and it would set a very high standard."
Such a system would provide stable coverage to the most vulnerable patients and help with better coordination of care and disease management, he added.
Stark, also at the press conference, said adding a public health insurance element to healthcare would not threaten private health plans. "Most health plans are intermediaries, administering under contract for Medicare. I think the plan would come together," he said.
Though Stark strongly supports the Obama plan, he said he doubts Congress will get a healthcare reform package passed before early 2010. He said there is "too much deferred maintenance" to attend to first, including funding for physician reimbursement and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. In addition, he said, Congress will need time to hold hearings to allow representatives from all sides of the argument to testify.
Hickey said activists are pushing for reform sooner than 2010 and will urge healthcare reform elements to be included in economic recovery packages.
"Those who elected Obama want to see action within the first year," he said. "Losing coverage is part of the recession and a serious problem for those who have lost their coverage. The faster we take action, the better."
According to Hickey, 160 members of Congress now support the Obama plan, wand that number continues to grow.