Tomorrow night’s Presidential debate will undoubtedly feature a spirited discussion of the candidates’ views on health reform. I’m not going to be sitting in front of the tube (rather, panel) blogging in real time as I’ll be on a plane. More’s the pity.
Here’s what I’d like to hear and who I’d like to hear it from.
Obama
You’ve consistently argued against mandated universal coverage on the grounds that cost must be controlled first. Yet your plan does little to address cost drivers. What must be done to address costs?
Your plan uses the Federal Employee Plan as the baseline benefit design for all insurers’ offerings. There is some evidence that adding ‘consumerism’ features to plans can reduce inappropriate utilization. How would you modify the basic plan to encourage patients to be more cost-conscious?
Your plan will cost about a hundred billion dollars a year. In today’s economy, how would we pay for that and can we afford it?
Both
Do you view the Massachusetts reforms as positive, and what lessons can we learn from that state?
Lifestyle diseases account for a growing percentage of US health care costs, despite an expensive and ongoing campaign to increase fitness, reduce obesity, improve diet, and eliminate smoking. Is it time for Americans with controllable risk factors to be asked to pay higher premiums for their lifestyle choices?
McCain
You have based your reform plan on the individual market. As a cancer survivor you would find it all but impossible to find an insurer willing to cover you. Many other Americans would find themselves in a similiar situation should your plan pass. How would your plan ensure that the tens of millions of Americans with chronic or pre-existing conditions would be able to afford good insurance?
Your plan relies on high risk pools to provide coverage for those Americans that could not buy insurance from private insurers, yet most state high risk pools are underfunded, won’t cover the high cost care many enrollees need, are closed to new members due to lack of funding, and therefore are marginally helpful. You have suggested your plan would provide ten billion dollars to fund these pools, an amount that is insufficient by any measure. How would you resolve this?
Your plan calls for the elimination of the employer tax deduction for health insurance, a position that most employers firmly reject. How would you convince employers to give up this deduction?
We all know neither of these plans will become law. What we need to better understand is how they think about the hard issues, the details that will bedevil any and all reform initiatives.
Oct
6
I think, given the current economic situation, health care reform will be dismissed as yesterday’s news. It is unfortunate, as Americans are aging, and will soon require MORE health care rather than less. To pretend that it is “okay” to ignore this problem, however, is just to have it worsen. Our country needs to face the fact that we need to come up with a solution to provide health care to the uninsured/underinsured in a thoughtful, EFFICIENT manner. The thought of a government run system chills me, but I don’t have a better answer. Hopefully we can all come up with solutions that will work, not just jargon.
Joe, good questions. Not sure I would have worded exactly that way, but should spur some discussion.
Unfortunately, Belmont University’s website says…
MyDebates.org is no longer accepting questions for submission in the town hall presidential debate at Belmont University on October 7.
So, I would suggest e-mailing these directly to Tom Brokaw who gets to choose from the submitted questions, or pick ones he chooses to ask.