EXPERTS BOTH ON AND OFF CAPITOL HILL say healthcare will be key in the upcoming election year.
Among the most hotly debated issues is reform and how to insure the uninsured – a toll now considered so taxing it's finally on the radar for solving. Though many of the presidential hopefuls promote healthcare reform, only Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) promotes universal healthcare as a solution.
This past month he must have been surprised when a large portion of the nation's doctors stepped forward to endorse a single payer healthcare system.
Meanwhile, even without tackling such drastic reform as universal healthcare, access as it stands hangs by a slimmer thread. Congress passed the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 in the 11th hour of the 110th, with only a six-month moratorium on cutting physician Medicare payment by 10 percent. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), after two false attempts, was funded for another year and a half.
The American College of Physicians, with all of its 124,000 members, said they are for a single payer system. The organization has advocated universal coverage since 1990, in a pluralistic model, but this is the first time it has endorsed a single payer system. The ACP said a careful review of the health systems of 12 other nations led them to change their tack. Some, it seems, have found the answer to both quality care and contained costs.
These are only stopgap measures. Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Congress must "move boldly" early next year to make the fixes permanent and "change Medicare in a smart and fiscally responsible way."
There are touted solutions everywhere. The Commonwealth Fund Commission said this week that guaranteeing health insurance for all, when combined with policy options aimed at improving health system performance, could result in $1.5 trillion in reduced spending over the next decade.
And soothsayers were silenced. The Congressional Budget Office announced that baby boomers aren’t projected to be the major factor in healthcare spending increases over the next several decades, after all.
Yet, it seems our problem is quality. There is an effectiveness curve that turns downward after a point, despite the increasing amount spent on healthcare, according to CBO Director Peter Orszag, who believes America is on that slippery slope.
None of these problems are new to most folks who monitor healthcare. We all know that healthcare is threatening to topple America from its perch. What is new for 2008, however, is the opportunity to maybe do something about it.