President Barack Obama has made it one of his administration’s top priorities to reform the nation’s health care system to insure that all Americans have access to health insurance.
Earlier this year, the president made clear his determination to achieve that goal:
“I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
Obama is the fourth modern president to attempt a major reform of the predominantly private health care system. Medicare was created as a result of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society push in 1965.
But President Harry Truman in 1949 and President Bill Clinton in 1993 proposed ambitious programs to put government in charge of major portions of the health care system but failed to win congressional approval.
Public support for “doing something” about health care reform was strong during the 2008 presidential campaign, with Obama proposing a new system that puts government into competition with private-sector insurers and vastly increases Washington’s role from the examining room to the operating table.
But this year as Congress has taken up debate on Obama’s initiative and as the nation’s media has covered the issue, public support is beginning to waver. A major reason for the wavering is the cost, estimated at more than $1.6 trillion by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Another factor is growing concern about the prospect of millions of Americans being forced from private, employer-provided health insurance to the government-run “Public Option.” A third factor is fear that a government-run system in the U.S. will ration health care, just as has happened in Canada, Britain, France and other countries with such systems.
Though the White House has not sent a specific health care reform legislative blueprint to Congress, it has made clear why the president wants a bill on his desk before the end of the year and the principles he hopes Congress will follow.
Here’s how the White House Web site describes the president’s views:
“Comprehensive health care reform can no longer wait. Rapidly escalating health care costs are crushing family, business, and government budgets. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 9 years, a rate 3 times faster than cumulative wage increases.
“This forces families to sit around the kitchen table to make impossible choices between paying rent or paying health premiums. Given all that we spend on health care, American families should not be presented with that choice. The United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in 2007, or $7,421 per person — nearly twice the average of other developed nations.
“Americans spend more on health care than on housing or food. If rapid health cost growth persists, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2025, one out of every four dollars in our national economy will be tied up in the health system. This growing burden will limit other investments and priorities that are needed to grow our economy.
“Rising health care costs also affect our economic competitiveness in the global economy, as American companies compete against companies in other countries that have dramatically lower health care costs.
“The president has vowed that the health reform process will be different in his administration — an open, inclusive, and transparent process where all ideas are encouraged and all parties work together to find a solution to the health care crisis.
“Working together with members of Congress, doctors and hospitals, businesses and unions, and other key health care stakeholders, the president is committed to making sure we finally enact comprehensive health care reform.
“The administration believes that comprehensive health reform should:
» Reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government.
» Protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs.
» Guarantee choice of doctors and health plans.
» Invest in prevention and wellness.
» Improve patient safety and quality of care.
» Assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans.
» Maintain coverage when you change or lose your job.
» End barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.”
While we agree with the Obama principles for health care reform, The Examiner believes nationalizing health care is the wrong way to go. This special section brings together a number of the nation’s top health care reform experts to explain why and to suggest better ways to achieve the same ends.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner.
