Health Care Reform – A DRC Panel Update

The Chamber continues to stay abreast of the latest healthcare happenings in the Nation’s capital and recently hosted an event to help educate members on the federal healthcare reform and where it currently stands. The moderator and panelists discussed a wide variety of issues as they pertained to federal healthcare legislation and fielded numerous questions from the audience.

During his opening remarks David Toomey, President of CIGNA HealthCare, provided the insurance perspective of what must be done to move the system from “sick care” to “health care”. This included removing the pre-existing conditions clause found in both bills that will entice individuals to not carry insurance until they become sick and then begin to pay into the program in order to receive care. This would be particularly true for younger generations that are in college or beginning to enter the workforce that Toomey characterized as the ‘invincibles’.

The information technology component was a key point stressed during the program; particularly the ability for physicians to build and maintain systems in their private practices. Stephen Mansfield remarked that on the larger hospital side, “we desperately need electronic health records so that we’re not fooling with any paper and so that we can take advantage of all the different safety measures that comes with having an IT system.” One example given by the President of Methodist Health System was bar-coding for medications to guarantee that the right patient receives the right drug, for the right amount, at the right time, and this will add tremendously to clinical patient safety.

Then, in response to an inquiry on high drug costs that burden the United States, Frank Sheeder of Jones Day stated that, “we bear a lot of the cost for the R&D and we also bear the tort liability in this country and the markets are much more friendly overseas on those issues.” U.S. Congressman Michael Burgess also chimed in that it is a trade issue and invokes some safety problems with medications manufactured outside our borders. As well, he pushed that the U.S. Trade Representative needs to actively protect our intellectual property and should do so aggressively to aide in curbing domestic costs.

As a part of federal health reform, you might have heard of several ‘deals’ that the White House made with various groups of the healthcare industry to help curve costs by upwards of $2 Trillion. Congressman Burgess shared with the audience about his Resolution of Inquiry delivered to the Obama Administration as to exactly what agreements were made behind closed doors with industry leaders in May of 2009. While a response was eventually received from the Counsel to the
President, it was deemed inadequate and a new letter requesting the information has been penned by Burgess along with fellow Congressmen Henry Waxman and Joe Barton.

President Obama called for a bipartisan meeting to take place on February 25th at the Blair House in Washington in hopes of reviving what has been his top domestic priority. In an effort to gain some Republican support, the White House subsequently released their version of a health bill which closely followed the bill passed by the Senate before Christmas. The meeting was a chance for Democrats and Republicans to come together and try to work out compromises on the legislation; however the pivotal gathering was filled with a great deal of political jockeying and not much real progress.

It was made clear that with no support from the Republican side the President, Speaker, and Majority Leader will be pursuing the reconciliation process through a two bill strategy. While a very difficult procedure, it can be accomplished if Speaker Pelosi can muster 217 votes in the House and the two chambers can figure out sequencing and CBO scoring issues. Those issues among others will be unfolding over the coming month, and with an election just around the corner, many representatives will be heavily contemplating their vote and thinking of their future.

As this publication went to print we are awaiting a “much smaller” bill due to be released by the President today that could generate some consent from lawmakers. Still what you hear across the nation, as well as the general consensus of our panel, is that nobody really knows what to expect in the near future. It was said by a panelist that if something is not done by the end of March, then any reform will have the same fate as the Clinton health care plan of the early 90’s. This is unfortunate because, as Mr. Sheeder described, the healthcare system is “wrought with confusion… waste and abuse” and something needs to be done – according to polls most in this nation would agree with him.

Special thanks to breakfast sponsors BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, Methodist Health System, and Genesis Physicians Group for making the Healthcare Hot Topics Series possible. Please look for the next event on March 30th where we will be discussing transparency in the healthcare system.