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.
By now most of us have heard the hullaballoo about California’s Anthem Blue Cross raising its individual plan rates by 39% or more. But this isn’t an isolated incident. Many insurers, including Health Net, Aetna, and Cigna, have jacked up their rates for 2010 due to a rapid increase in healthcare costs or other purported excuses. It may be surprising information to healthcare reform ostriches, but to those of tuned in to the accelerating US healthcare disaster, it’s old news. More interesting are the responses coming from Washington, D.C. and state politicians.
California is a leader in technology, the environment, and citywide indigent healthcare. Now it’s setting its sights on innovative statewide healthcare leadership. The state senate brought that goal one step closer today, passing universal healthcare bill SB 810 by a vote of 22-14. The US House might want to take notice of what happens when you actually bring a quality single-payer bill to a vote.
Last time I made my case that having a health insurance mandate up front in the reform process actually gives you the upper hand in future debate. It can also accelerate real change by exposing market dysfunction as the real driver behind exorbitant costs. As in, “Hey, we’re all in the insurance pool now but costs keep rising. Do something about it, Congress.” But you don’t need to take my word for it. Maine has already been down that path. Follow along as we trace the state’s experience in avoiding a health insurance mandate.
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Want to get beyond the hype of “socialized medicine” and death panels, and find out what healthcare reform is really trying to accomplish?
T.R. Reid is once again taking the hype out of healthcare reform. The creator of the PBS series “Sick Around the World” is also the author of “Healing of America”, which provides more in depth coverage of his exploration of international universal healthcare systems.
He gave an excellent talk with a question-and-answer session for the Commonwealth Club in California on the 4 types of healthcare systems, where, how, and why they exist. Watch it! blogsurfer.us
