Options for Addressing Our Nation’s Health Care Crisis

by Mike Hall, Jan 15, 2009 This is a series of occasional articles looking at health care reform proposals and initiatives from a wide range of groups and experts. We take a brief look today at two reports, one from a major health care union and the other by a group of CEOs from five large health plans or systems and a drug company president. The incoming Obama administration is developing a comprehensive plan to address a broad range of health care concerns. The AFL-CIO has not endorsed a specific plan but has established certain principles that any plan should be built around. Reform must secure high-quality health care for all; lower the costs that are now crushing working families and businesses and share responsibility among employers, government and individuals among other principles. Click here for more information. To apply those principles to the debate as it is shaping up in Washington these days, the AFL-CIO has developed a list of key issues based upon extensive discussions with national unions since the election. For example, a key issue for unions today is defending the public insurance plan that President-elect Obama is proposing as an alternative to private insurance and that insurance companies and right-wingers have teamed up to try to kill. Earlier this week, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), which backs a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health care reform plan, released a study that says such a plan would not only guarantee health care for all, but would be a major boost to the nation’s staggering economy. The study, conducted by the Institute of Health and Socio-Economic Policy, says a single-payer plan would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues, with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy. CNA/NNOC co-President Geri Jenkins, RN, says: These dramatic new findings document for the first time that a single-payer system could not only solve our healthcare crisis, but also substantially contribute to putting America back to work and assisting the economic recovery. Click here to read the full study. Meanwhile, Health CEOs for Health Reform (HC4HR)—launched by the New American Foundation last month—is saying many of the right things about health care, including the need for major reforms. That’s quite a shift from the health industry’s long-held, “Just Say No,” stance. Says Lloyd Dean, president and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West: It’s time for hospitals and physicians to address the reality that health care costs too much and that our current ways of financing and delivering health care are outdated and not sustainable. As providers we must be accountable for the quality and affordability of the care we deliver. Here’s something you likely would not have heard from an insurance executive in the not-too-distant past. Bruce Bodaken, chairman and CEO of Blue Shield of California, says: It’s time for health industry CEO’s to step up and say what has to be said, that achieving coverage for all will require each of us to change the way we do business. With regard to health plans that means giving the right to pick and choose our customers based on how healthy they are. Sure sounds good, but the question is will their action follow their words, or are those words just a cover. Click here to read the HC4HR announcement, here for the AFL-CIO’s response and here for recent reports at the AFL-CIO health care site. from AFL-CIO NOW blog