Former CBO Director Proposes Reform Plan
By Ceci Connolly
The man who helped Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) craft his health-care platform in the 2008 presidential campaign is back at it, with a detailed paper on how to pursue bipartisan reform this year.
It's no surprise that Douglas Holtz-Eakin still supports major changes to the tax treatment of employer-based insurance. But the former head of the Congressional Budget Office goes well beyond that idea in a new paper for the conservative Manhattan Institute. He argues for a phase-in period toward universal coverage and insists that improved quality be at the heart of efforts to remake the U.S. system.
What's striking about the paper is that it is far from predictable ideological positioning. Holtz-Eakin is likely to perturb some of his friends on the right with what amounts to an endorsement for comparative effectiveness research. He says it would generate "useful information . . . to know which efforts are more successful than others."
And on the subject of the employer exclusion, Holtz-Eakin is not alone. A growing chorus in Congress, led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have said that limiting the exclusion could raise large sums of money to extend coverage to the uninsured.
To see the details of his proposals, read the report here and let us know what you think:
• Forging a New Plan For Health Care
By
Paul Volpe
|
May 18, 2009; 1:19 PM ET
Categories:
Daily Dose
Share This: E-Mail | Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble
Previous: Obama Radio Address: High Hopes for Health Reform
Next: North Carolina's Blue Cross Blue Shield Trying to Kill Key Plank of Obama Plan
Posted by: lionelroger | May 18, 2009 3:41 PM | Report abuse
Hmmm... Health Care for All Americans is Simple! 1) Merge Medicare with Medicaide into one single "Income Based" system for elderly and poor citizens. 2) Require insurance companies to provide the same basic coverage for all Non-Medicare/Medicaide citizens, regardless of health status, at affordable rates. 3) Allow insurance companies to profit by offering additional benefits and options to those who qualify and are willing to pay the difference. As for Funding... 1) Changing from an "Emergency Treatment" to a "Preventive Care" system will save local communities billions, maybe even trillions of taxpayer dollars! 2) Small business will be able to compete globally and hire additional taxpaying employees! 3) Wealthy seniors will pay their fair share! 4) The tremendous burden on future generations will be greatly reduced!
Posted by: jpinsatx | May 19, 2009 5:15 PM | Report abuse
If you are uninsured and does not have insurance, you should check out the website http://UninsuredAmerica.blogspot.com - John Mayer, California
--------
Posted by: johnmayer76 | May 22, 2009 5:59 AM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
The solution to the Health care problem in America is political. And as the old saying goes:" It's not the same calling for the Devil as seeing him coming around the corner". For much of what Obama and his Administration promised in Health care reform will require a great deal of courage and political will on his part and that of Congress- but it isn't there. Look up a fresh article on the looming expense of funding health care reform in the NEJM May 14/09 issue for a quick grasp of this question (by Oberlander, PhD). Any form of Health care reform which extends further the quasi-public, quasi private plans and their multiple-choice cafeteria style provider pool is bound for quick failure and will not provide access to most, or all the population. Much like the Universal health care in France, England, Canada and Germany, access to most of the population under a safety net demands rationing of expensive treatments to the very old or the infirm-anything else is hipocrisy. (in America, at least a 1/3 of the financial outlay from Government subsidized programs is wasted on people in the last year of life-the infirm). The only Plan which has any capacity to give Government, (the payer), the tools to bargain with the private sector for medications and services, control salaries reasonaby and hold down the rapidly escalating yearly costs is a National Health Plan. In spite of all the propaganda against it in America by some, none of the countries above would trade their Health care system for our hodge-podge cafeteris Plans which have left 50 million uninsured and the rest broke with escalating insurance premiums. At the same time, Congress and Government employees don't feel the country's pain because they will continue to enjoy Government-subsidized, cafeteria options, a travesty that borders on the un-Constitutional. Given that there may be a bi-partisan option on the table for so-called Health reform, what we probably will end up with is more of the same-with a kick of the can down the road till our people, dumbed-down with bread and circuses, finally take to the streets to demonstrate for true Universal care. Anything else is more smoke and mirrors.