http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27663.htmlWhy health reform will succeed
By SEN. TOM HARKIN | 9/29/09 4:58 AM EDT
Momentum is building in Congress to pass a strong health reform bill this year. The president continues to make a powerful case for action. All the major industry stakeholders — hospitals, doctors, insurers and the pharmaceutical industry — are on board. And when the Senate Finance Committee completes its markup, all five congressional committees with jurisdiction over health care will have passed reform bills.
Those bills share a strong common core:
All would ban insurance company abuses, such as denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, dropping policyholders who contract serious illnesses and cutting off payments after an annual or lifetime cap is reached.
All would ensure high-quality health insurance for nearly every American, while providing subsidies for those who can’t afford it.
And — something I have strongly championed — all would include a sharp new emphasis on wellness and prevention.
Recent reports highlight the urgency of reform. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that, over the past decade, health insurance premiums have increased an extraordinary 131 percent, and the average monthly premium for a family is now nearly $1,000. Every day, 14,000 more Americans lose their health insurance. More than 60 percent of bankruptcies are linked to medical expenses; and nearly 80 percent of those people had health insurance, but it failed to pay the bills.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which I chair, and the Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), can be proud that their respective bills are the product of extensive bipartisan consultation and input.
In the HELP Committee, during open proceedings spanning 13 days and 54 hours, Republicans were full-fledged participants throughout. They offered a total of 210 amendments, of which 161 were accepted — many of them making significant, substantive contributions to the bill. It was unfortunate that Republicans ended up voting against our bill in a straight party-line vote.
Similarly, Sen. Baucus negotiated for months with key GOP members of his committee. He bent over backward to meet their demands and included many of their ideas in his mark. In the end, all Republicans chose not to support the release of the committee’s mark.
It is the Republicans’ right to choose this course of hard-line opposition. But, just as surely, Democrats are the majority party in Congress. And we have a responsibility to lead.
That is what we did in the HELP Committee in July. Finance will soon follow suit. A bill melding the two committees’ marks will come to the floor soon, where I hope the amendment process will create a final Senate bill that moderate Republicans can support.
The time to act is here. The choice is between those who offer no constructive alternative, only partisan obstruction, and those who have worked diligently for months to craft a pragmatic, moderate bill with the best ideas from both Democrats and Republicans.
One true bright spot in this process has been the bipartisan support for including a robust wellness and disease prevention title in the final bill. This will jump-start the transformation of our current “sick care” system into a genuine health care system, one that is focused on helping people stay healthy and out of the hospital. Our aim is to re-create America as a wellness society — a society focused on healthful lifestyles, good nutrition, plenty of physical activity and preventing the chronic diseases that take such a toll on our bodies and our budgets.
At the clinical level, we will require reimbursement for proven, cost-effective preventive services such as cancer screenings, nutrition counseling and smoking-cessation programs. This means health professionals will be able to offer these services to you before you get diseases such as diabetes, cancer or emphysema.
For essential screenings and annual physicals, we will get rid of the co-pays and deductibles that currently discourage many people from doing the right things to stay healthy.
We are going to promote community and workplace wellness efforts and make major new investments in public health.
We are also going to address the shortage of health care professionals by expanding and creating loan repayment programs, scholarships and grants to encourage students to go into high-need fields and to work in underserved areas.
I do not underestimate those who oppose reform. Many have a vested interest in the current system. Others simply want President Barack Obama to fail, and they have said so vocally. But there is a silent majority of Americans — including, I believe, a supermajority of senators — who will come together to support the pragmatic, consensus bill that will be the end product of Senate and House deliberations in the weeks ahead.
We need reform because the status quo is unsustainable. We will succeed because failure is not an option. We are going to create a reformed insurance and health system that works not just for the healthy and wealthy but for all Americans.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
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