President Obama’s Healthcare Forum
The Grand Foyer was filled with members of Congress, health care experts and physicians, business owners, insurers, and everyday Americans – all with a stake in the health reform effort. President Obama greets the packed house, saying “This was the hottest ticket in town.” The President’s first address at the Forum is unambiguous that we cannot delay health reform: “Our goal will be to enact comprehensive health reform by the end of this year.”
As background, over the holidays, then President-elect Obama called on Americans to hold community discussions on health care. Over 9,000 Americans signed up to host in all 50 states – over 30,000 Americans attended a discussion near them. The groups submitted reports to the President’s health care team listing their concerns about the system and their suggestions for reform. The responses from around the country were summarized and analyzed in the report. And today, seven Americans who participated in these discussions are joining us at the White House today. There are a lot of “stakeholders” here at the Forum, but I have a sense that having those people here who engaged just as a way of standing up with their community keeps everybody grounded by realizing that every oridinary person is a “stakeholder” in this discussion.
Before the group heads to breakout discussion sessions on the subject, the President says he believes this time around the effort to reform the health care system is different: “this time the call for reform is coming from the bottom up.” The summit discussions produced their fair share of good ideas. Many spoke, here are a few excerpts from various sources including the White House Blog:
A few forthright speakers cut through some of the more gratuitous remarks. Senator Jay Rockefeller, for example, warned that anyone who believes healthcare reform won’t cost us anything is delusional: reform will cost money. Rockefeller then went on to talk about the power of lobbyists, pointing out that their money and muscle remain formidable. This doesn’t mean that healthcare reform is not doable, but it does suggest that meaningful reform will require both time and dollars.
Another observation came during the discussion of fraud. Former health and human services secretary Donna Shalala spoke up: “If we want credibility with the public, we need to put some people in jail.” Indeed. Over the past 20 years, the FBI has raided a number of huge hospital chains. Indictments have been handed down, charging executives and physicians with defrauding Medicare and even performing unnecessary surgeries on innocent patients. Huge fines have been paid. But it is rare that anyone is incarcerated. In fact, executives like Richard Scott – former CEO of Columbia/HCA – often wind up back in the healthcare business.
Iowa senator Charles Gressley, the ranking Republican on the Senate finance committee, raised whether the reform plan should include a public-sector insurance program (some call it “Medicare for all”) as an alternative to private insurance? “A lot of us feel that the public-sector option would create unfair competition” for private insurers, Grassley explained before telling Obama.
The president answered Grassley and he didn’t give much ground: “The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps keep the private sector honest, because there’s some competition out there.” Obama continued: “I recognize the fear that if a public option is run through Washington and there are incentives to try to tamp down costs”, then “private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed. We’ll make sure it’s addressed.”
Many comments on various related blogs put the onus on insurance companies for skimming profit from the system without adding commensurate value. Such commenters tended to see a larger role for government — including a single payer system to replace our current private insurance system. So the debate will rage on for months, but one thing seems sure … President Obama sees opportunity at the end of the tunnel and is betting a lot of his popularity on being able to steer this issue.
The President concludes his first address to the forum guests, telling everyone to get to work: “this time there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable health care – the only question is how?”
The White House Forum on Health Reform ended in a dialogue with President Obama that turned out to be the most revealing part of the afternoon. In that final hour, you began to hear the anger of the opposition – and you caught a glimpse of which principles the president himself considers most important.
Filed Under: News & Careers
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