This week, the National Journal invited key health care advocates and experts to respond to the following question:
What early health care victories should President-elect Obama and Congress seek before Washington works on broad health care reform legislation?
My response is below:
As the economy sputters, fixing health care becomes more and more urgent. President-elect Obama has made clear that solving our health care crisis is crucial to repairing our economy. He's right. Let's get to work.Any health care remedies need to be part of a comprehensive solution to bring down costs, make health care accessible to everyone, and improve quality. First up, working families need fast action to keep our broken health care system from backsliding further, including:
- Reauthorize SCHIP, the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Even with SCHIP, nearly 8 million children don't have health insurance - children whose parents make too much money to qualify and yet still can't afford coverage. As the economy slows, more parents risk losing their jobs and losing their health care - or having their hours cut and losing their health care. Certainly, at a minimum, Congress should quickly reauthorize a proven program with broad support that offers a lifeline to low-income families - even as we push forward with making sure millions more uninsured children enroll in good health care. Only by insuring the uninsured can we eliminate income and racial disparities in the incidence of chronic disease and bring down health costs overall.
- Increase FMAP, the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages program, so states can preserve crucial services. Again, now is not the time for backsliding. We need to shore up programs that work and build on them, or else the downturn will sink more families and communities already nearing the breaking point.
For every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, Medicaid and SCHIP enrollment are predicted to grow by 1 million nationally, with an additional 1.1 million losing their health insurance, according to the Urban Institute. With unemployment forecast to rise in the coming months, expect more demands on hospital emergency rooms and more unpaid medical bills. Without federal support, states would have no choice but to cut services to families in need, and health care providers would be unable to deliver timely care. FMAP funding clearly belongs in the economic recovery package.- Improve health care information technology, which would increase quality and help control costs. Technology would eliminate redundancies, make it so that every visit to a new doctor doesn't entail re-listing your entire medical history, and make government purchasing more efficient - ensuring that insurance markets work better overall. It also makes sense to set standards for health terminology, sponsor and disseminate research on which treatments work best, and reward providers who can report quality outcomes over time. Technology is a given in so many industries, why not health care?
Don't let this moment slip away. Americans voted resoundingly for change, and now is the time to deliver change that works. That means building a health care system that works for everyone, with workers, employers and the government pulling together and everyone paying their fair share.
Our job is clear: Making sure Congress knows there is broad grassroots support for finally fixing health care and promoting policies that put working families at the center of any economic recovery. We're ready. Let's get it done.
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