Back to School on Health Care

Yesterday, President Obama told school children across America that, “There is no excuse for not trying” when it comes to learning. The same could be said of Congress in its current efforts to pass health care reform.

News reports are filled with accounts of the ins and outs of this attempt to overhaul our health care system, using the term “system” loosely, and the degree to which the Obama administration has learned, or even over-learned, from President Clinton’s earlier attempt at reform. President Obama has steered clear of the backroom approach the Clintons were charged with in producing their own legislation, and has asked Congress to take the lead in crafting reform. But he has clearly made some of his own missteps, mostly in the area of communication to the public about why we need health care reform, how it will affect them, and how it will be paid for. Oh yeah, and whether the public option is actually “socialism” or whether it’s more akin to the public insurance options already available through Medicaid, Medicare, the U.S. Military and the Federal Government.

I want health care reform to succeed, especially for the children and families among the individuals who make up the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans. According to Families USA, in 2007 more than 8.6 million children had no health insurance, and about 88% of those children had a parent who was employed. Children and their families need access to preventive health care, treatment for chronic conditions, and a more rational system of care than the emergency room. But the most recent polls show that the public needs some questions answered clearly before it can fully embrace health care reform that helps the people who need it most. To that end, I would like policy-makers to read the following questions, write down compelling and accurate answers, and carry those answers around on cards in their pockets a la Grover Norquist followers until real, rational health care reform passes the House and the Senate.

• Is the “public option” still on the table? Is it off the table? What is it anyway?
• Is health care reform without the public option really reform at all, since theoretically one of the goals is to correct the market failure of the existing health insurance industry and make sure that everyone can have some kind of health care coverage that doesn’t break the bank?
• And speaking of breaking the bank, how much will health care reform cost, and where will the revenues come from to pay for it? Are there ways to increase the efficiency of the health care system so those dollars can be used to cover more people?
• Finally, if I’m a voter who currently gets health care coverage through an HMO, partially paid for by my employer, how will the current reform proposals affect me and my family?

When President Obama speaks tonight, he is expected to answer some of those questions… but then Congress has to carry the ball. Yes, health care reform is big and complicated and potentially expensive. But it’s also needed. Desperately. And as the President said, there is no excuse for not trying.

For more information on federal health care reform legislation, visit the National Coalition on Health Care or Families USA.