Well, the Healthcare Summit is over. Not much happened that wasn’t expected: the whole country got to witness Republican obstructionism first-hand, and Democrats stuck to their agenda. But there was one very important participant missing from the invite list, someone who could have made the meeting less of a rehash and more of a critical visioning session.
Obama discussing Consumer-Directed Health Plans with Republican John Barrasso, a physician:
Obama: “Would you be satisfied if every member of Congress just had catastrophic care–you think we’d be better health care purchasers? I mean, is that a change you think we should make?”
Barrasso: “I think actually we would. We’d really focus on it. We’d have more, as you say, skin in the game. And especially if they had a savings account–a health savings account–they could put their money into that, and they’d be spending the money out of that.”
Obama: “Would you feel the same way if you were making $40,000? Or if that was your income. Because that’s the reality for a lot of folks.”
Barrasso: Speechless.
Watch it:
Health Affairs has a good halftime report from the Healthcare Summit, summarizing the jabs and parries between Democrats and Republicans on their healthcare ideas. Read it here. Too bad they left the best (and really only) question until last — it’s long past time to answer it and get out of the dead ends and diversions in the healthcare reform debate.
Newt Gingrich thought he’d start his party’s preparation for the Healthcare Summit by rustling up some fake statistics to support Republican’s favorite healthcare subject: tort reform. He did a great job too. His think tank, Center for Health Transformation, funded Jackson Healthcare, a healthcare management company, to direct a physician survey on defensive medicine costs. Their results: defensive medicine accounts for 26% of US healthcare costs annually, to the tune of $650 billion.
This Thursday, the Healthcare Summit will finally kick off. What will happen during the course of this none-too-historic event? You may be surprised to feel like you’re watching soap opera re-runs. And no, I’m not just referring to the fact that there was another healthcare summit held just about a year ago.
