The Way Forward

Posted by Grace-Marie Turner in Health Care on Jan 22nd, 2010 | no responses

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The best path to real reform is for the president and the leaders in Congress to work with members from both sides of the aisle to come up with a step-by-step approach. The American people don’t want anybody’s 2,000-page overhaul legislation.

They have made it clear they want health insurance that is reliable and more affordable and that does not exclude people with pre-existing conditions. Congress could start by helping states to create more functional high-risk pools, by giving people more choices of how and where they purchase health insurance, and by assuring people that if they have coverage, they can keep it. They need to create a path toward ownership of health insurance and genuine competition among insurers. And now that people know how much wasteful spending there is in Medicare and Medicaid, they want that fixed.

There is a world of policy complexity behind these initiatives, but Congress must start by respecting that people value private health insurance, don’t want huge disruptions and losses of freedom, or massive new taxes and entitlement costs. Then a new conversation can begin.

The most important thing is to get the incentives right so that power and control over health care decisions rests with doctors and patients and not politicians and bureaucrats.

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