Health Policy Matters Newsletter
ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson shook his head after Wednesday night's broadcast from the White House, frustrated he had not been able to draw out more details from President Obama about the sweeping health reform plan that he is pushing. Gibson, as well as the doctors, patients, businesspeople, and others in the audience, posed some tough questions. But most of the president's answers came from his standard talking points and went unchallenged. He spoke for 45 minutes of the 75 minutes of actual airtime.
Health Policy Pulse
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Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, has been invited to the White House this evening to participate in the ABC News special “Questions for the President: Prescription for America.” Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer will moderate the discussion as President Obama answers questions from the audience about health reform. The program airs tonight from 10:00-11:00pm Eastern on ABC, with a follow up broadcast later this evening on Nightline.
What's New
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Interest in the Massachusetts health reform plan remains high as observers at the federal and state levels monitor its progress toward achieving universal health insurance coverage and controlling rising health costs. Many of the features of the Massachusetts plan are contained in legislation under consideration in Congress, including a bill offered by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Therefore, it is worth assessing the experience with the Bay State’s reform initiative so far for lessons that may be useful for federal lawmakers.
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The health debate is now fo cused on the question of a "public option" -- with most Democrats insisting that any reform package must include a government-run health-insurance program that would compete with private insurers. It's a terrible idea. With access to taxpayer dollars, a public option could easily crowd out private competition by selling policies at artificially low prices.
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When President Obama went into the lion’s den of the American Medical Association today, he carried in some red meat: He said he would side with doctors, rather than with the trial lawyers that support his party, by advocating malpractice reform, a hot-button issue with physicians whose premiums can soar to six figures.
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It is widely agreed that doctors and patients need improved information about medicines and treatments to make the best decisions about patient care. However, many are concerned about how the new federal program or programs governing comparative effectiveness research will be structured, what goals will be established, what type of information will be gathered and how it will be used. I would like to share some of our views and concerns with you.
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A majority of Americans - 55 percent - told pollsters recently they would trust an independent board of scientists to evaluate competing medical treatments and to recommend which ones should be covered by insurers. That may seem like good news for Congress, which just allocated $1.1 billion for research into the relative effectiveness of various medicines and medical devices. But the same poll, conducted in March by the Kaiser Family Foundation, National Public Radio and Harvard University, also reveals that only 41 percent of Americans would trust the scientists on the panel if they were "appointed by the federal government."
The Galen Institute, Inc., is a not-for-profit, free-market research organization devoted exclusively to health policy, promoting a more informed public debate over individual freedom, consumer choice, competition and diversity in the health sector.
