With several key announcements this week, the words and actions of President Barack Obama show he understands the economy will never recover without health care reform. He also understands the public must be educated about the urgency of needed changes.
The president touted today’s health care summit as a step toward creating a bipartisan consensus on workable solutions that address the concerns of everyone involved. More than 150 leaders in politics, labor, and business, joined representatives of doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and consumer organizations. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell delivered a letter to the president that stated even Republicans are willing to consider reforms that don’t include establishing a single-payer system. Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, the president’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), has the skills to keep the momentum going.
Earlier this week, when the president announced Sebelius as his choice, I thought he had made another mistake in this area. His initial pick, Senator Tom Daschle, withdrew because of problems with his taxes. Sebelius was unsuccessful at attempts to provide coverage for the residents of her state.
But in spite of a Republican-dominated legislature, who feared the cost of expanding state insurance coverage and blocked her efforts, Sebelius successfully initiated major and minor changes that put the needs of consumers first. Those changes included standing up to HMOs that interfered with private medical decisions and helping senior citizens save money on prescription drugs. Prior to her election as governor, she became the first insurance commissioner in the nation to deny a takeover of her state’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield program by a for-profit health care conglomerate. The state has also expanded preventive care for several at risk populations during her tenure.
With the help of Nancy-Ann DeParle, who now heads the White House Office of Health Care Reform, Sebelius may be able to get the job done. DeParle brings experience with a wide variety of health care issues facing citizens, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government at the state and national levels. Among other positions, she served as director of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) and as representative for health care reform in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the Clinton administration. Especially important is her experience with serving the poor as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
Earlier this week, President Obama announced plans to address the needs of the nation’s uninsured. His budget includes $155 million for 126 community health centers around the country to provide care for approximately 750,000 people and create up to 5,500 new jobs. The centers will provide mostly primary care and preventive services, which will reduce the number of taxpayer-financed emergency room visits for non-emergent conditions.
But recent reports show that 87 million Americans went uninsured in the last two years. That’s up from the widely-reported figure of 47 million because so many people have recently lost coverage along with their jobs. Some experts say the number is growing by 14,000 each day. This lack of access to care will cost the nation even more as those people become disabled by conditions that could have been prevented by early intervention.
If the health care reform train doesn’t continue to move forward, it could easily derail all other plans to get the national and world economies back on track.
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Jacqueline Laurette Jones is author of Unmasking a Diagnosis: How to get Help for a Confusing Chronic Illness Without Filing for Bankruptcy.
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