There was much excitement today over Obama's nomination of Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services and Director of the White House Office on Health Reform (as there should have been), but it overshadowed another very encouraging appointment -- Dr. Jeanne Lambrew as Deputy Director of the White House Office on Health Reform.
Dr. Lambrew's career is defined by her tireless fight for better health care for every American. From her central role in crafting the Children's Health Insurance Program to her advocacy of affordable care for the elderly, Dr. Lambrew's efforts have led to improvements in access to care and deepened the public's understanding of how serious our health care crisis really is.
One of the most exciting perspectives Dr. Lambrew brings to the new administration is her expertise on the issue of long term care. In her testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging earlier this year, Dr. Lambrew outlined the unique challenges posed to long term care providers by the aging Baby Boom generation and the need for comprehensive reform:
When Americans think about health care, we often think about the hospitals and clinics where we go when we see the doctor. They're an important part of our health care system; but they're hubs in a larger network of providers who go to work in thousands of personal homes and care centers every day - giving care to millions of Americans. And, as our population ages and more families find ways to provide care at home, the strength of our long term care system becomes all the more important.
We should all join incoming Deputy Director Jeanne Lambrew in making the crucial work of America's long term care providers a key consideration of any plan to fix health care.
Baby Boomers may demand the benefits that can only be offered through systemic reform. They may want to have private plan options as well as a Medicare buy-in. They may support greater personal responsibility and public financing in return for affordability in a system that covers all Americans. And, they may prefer to focus on what is driving their high costs--a failure to focus on prevention, promote high-value care, and reduce cost shifting in the system--rather than patch a gap in the insurance system.
Irrespective of how the pressures and politics may evolve, the reality is that incremental reform for people ages 55 to 64 is difficult to achieve from a policy perspective. This population is in need of help and, because of it, is hard to help short of comprehensive reform. At-risk people ages 55 to 64 fall through the deepest cracks in our health system which band-aid solutions can do little to solve.
When Americans think about health care, we often think about the hospitals and clinics where we go when we see the doctor. They're an important part of our health care system; but they're hubs in a larger network of providers who go to work in thousands of personal homes and care centers every day - giving care to millions of Americans. And, as our population ages and more families find ways to provide care at home, the strength of our long term care system becomes all the more important.
We should all join incoming Deputy Director Jeanne Lambrew in making the crucial work of America's long term care providers a key consideration of any plan to fix health care.
