May 1st, 2008
Deja vu all over again on health insurance
A New England Journal of Medicine editorial on health insurance out today warns we could be heading back to another Harry and Louise moment, alluding to the failure of health care reform in 1994.
The proposals offered by John McCain on the one hand and Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton on the other are quite different, Lawrence Jacobs writes.
The chart (right) accompanying the story illustrates the problem. Most of us think the system stinks, but that we have it pretty good.
This practically guarantees little will be done, the editorial continues. “Even strong public opinion cannot unify polarized decision makers. Broad agreement by those in power on an approach to reform, as well as on critical details, is necessary.”
Alongside the launch of the McCain plan health insurers seem to have launched a PR blitz aimed at preventing any such consensus from emerging.
- Aetna CEO Ron Williams insists everything is fine and that predictive health techniques can dramatically improve outcomes at lower cost.
- Benefits experts are touting Health Reimbursement Accounts as the cure for rising premiums and small business coverage.
- Slate has an article calling major criticisms of health insurers “myths.”
All this pushback, set against a background of rising profits, and costs which are rising 10 times the rate of inflation, may simply be a political marker, an attempt to hold the party line and avoid getting rolled next year.
After all, in his CNN interview, Aetna’s Williams does end up supporting the idea of a mandate — all those who can afford coverage should be made to have it, with subsidies for the 14-17 million who can’t.
But in the end I find what the NEJM says compelling. The approach is more important than the position. Consensus, starting from where we agree and working outward, is a prerequisite for reform.
And that’s not a process designed for an election year.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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