First, The Golden Rule of Health ReformBack to the Blog »
August 20th, 2009
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I had a great vacation, thank you very much. 2 weeks at the beach in Maine after the Pan Mass Challenge was just the trick. But I seem to have lost my way with the health reform debate…does anyone know which way they went??
The answer is that nobody knows where we are or where we are heading. The Democratic Caucus is very shaky, and the chances of any bi-partisan support in the Senate are shrinking by the day. The chances of significant health reform are slipping away, and that is not a good thing.
Yesterday I had the chance to speak with my Congressman Chris Murphy as part of our Legislative Affairs work with the Metro-Hartford Alliance. If you know Chris, he is a very thoughtful, energetic advocate for reform and, although he sticks close to the Party line on most issues, has demonstrated a good appreciation for the health insurance industry and the potential impact that major health reform might have on our local economy, especially the tens of thousands of jobs in the health insurance industry in CT.
And he is very concerned about the chances for success. This is not a good thing.
This doesn’t mean that I support the proposed legislation that is out there or even many of the broad outlines painted by the administration. I tend to side with the arguments outlined by David Frum in a recent post entitled “What if We Win the Healthcare Fight?“:
What would it mean to “win” the healthcare fight?
For some, the answer is obvious: beat back the president’s proposals, defeat the House bill, stand back and wait for 1994 to repeat itself.
The problem is that if we do that… we’ll still have the present healthcare system. Meaning that we’ll have (1) flat-lining wages, (2) exploding Medicaid and Medicare costs and thus immense pressure for future tax increases, (3) small businesses and self-employed individuals priced out of the insurance market, and (4) a lot of uninsured or underinsured people imposing costs on hospitals and local governments.
In times like these-when it is difficult to understand exactly where we are or where we are heading–it is helpful for me to start at the top, to focus on the basics and build a solution that addresses the problems we are trying to fix while building on the many facets of the system that work well. “Begin with the end in mind…” And KISS…Keep it Simple, Stupid…”
So lets start with the basic problems we are trying to fix:
- We have 47 million or so Americans without health insurance; and
- Healthcare costs are increasing at a double digit inflation rate.
Ok–that helps.
Now lets try to understand the prevailing attitudes of the public, in particular as it relates to the uninsured. I have summarized my thoughts on this subject previously, and it starts with what I call ” The Golden Rule of Health Reform”.
You remember the golden rule from the bible: ”Do to others whatever you would have them do to you…” (Matthew 7:12). Well the Golden Rule of Health Reform goes like this:
I have good health insurance and good healthcare, and I think it would be a very good thing for everyone else to have it as well.
In other words, people want to help others achieve the same financial protection and access to care 85% most of us enjoy. But not at any cost.
That’s where the great counter balance to The Golden Rule comes in…The Law of Unitended Consequences. More on that in my next post.
Many politicians have started to suggest that we start over with reform, and that is exactly what I think we need to do, and exactly what I will try to do over the coming weeks as I (hopefuly) articulate a series of changes–new ideas and reforms–that can help us achieve The Golden Rule of Health Reform.
Posted by Bill in Healthcare Reform
