Newspaper Article

New hope on health care ; Broad-based coalition could hold the key to effective reform

2005

Overview

The expansion of health-care coverage and improvements in the nation's fractured health-care system will occur only if reforms have widespread support and diverse groups remain frustrated by the status quo. Only a broad-based coalition will be able to generate the bipartisan political support required to withstand the special- interest or partisan attacks that will follow any substantive proposals. Only a broadly shared sense of dissatisfaction will produce the passion and commitment necessary to trigger change. The financial costs of health care -- whether in Medicaid or private-sector employers' plans -- are immense, affecting national and state budgets as well as corporate profits. So are the human costs of inadequate insurance and care: The National Academy of Sciences estimates that 18,000 adults die each year because of inadequate access to care. Those are good reasons for the coalition to pursue its plans to have budget analysts project the costs of any proposals; we hope the analysts will also identify the costs associated with maintaining the status quo (lost work hours and wages, decreases in productivity, unpaid medical bills, charity care provided by hospitals, banruptcies, foreclosures). The group is leaning toward incremental solutions, the Times reported, an approach that might disappoint purists on the political left and right. But increments -- substantive increments -- offer the best short-term hope for progress at a time when partisan dissension, especially in Washington, has caused political paralysis on health care. For the foreseeable future, any sweeping proposal to either fully privatize or socialize insurance is likely to be dead on arrival, so it makes sense for the coalition to focus on improving the current mix of public and private coverage.

• Publisher: Halifax Media Group
• Subject: Butler, Stuart M