An Agenda for Starting Over

Posted by Grace-Marie Turner in Health Care on Feb 5th, 2010 | no responses

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During the House GOP retreat in Baltimore last week, Mr. Obama said that many Republican proposals were incorporated into legislation by the Democratic leadership, including:

• Allowing inter-state purchase of health insurance
• Catastrophic health insurance for young people
• High-risk pools for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions
• Small business health plans
• Incentives for wellness
• Allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ policies

While not every Republican or Democrat would agree with every item on the list, it is a start for a bipartisan discussion.

And to that list, I would add several others that were in the health policy platforms of both Sens. McCain and Obama during the campaign, including agreement on the importance of:

• Targeted financial help for the uninsured
• Incentives for prevention and early treatment
• Coordination of care and disease management
• Greater use of information technology and electronic medical records
• New approaches to “best practices” in treatment

There are serious differences about how to structure the underlying policy on any of these items and whether more power and control go to government or to doctors and patients. But these lists nonetheless could be a start for a bipartisan conversation.

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