Yesterday, we began a bipartisan discussion to revamp nearly 1/5 of the US economy. We heard arguments for and against certain parts of the proposed bill. There was a lot of posturing during the discussions and strong arguments made by both sides. However, there are certain nonnegotiable that I believe need to be agreed to.
For any change to truly impact the rising costs of healthcare, we must have transparency. What does transparency mean as it relates to healthcare? Simple. All providers must publish their pricing for services. A simple idea but a key element to in taking the first step to saving money. We must get transparency into the discussion and from that, allow consumers to take a more active role in their healthcare purchasing.
Healthcare is one of the few remaining areas of purchasing where a consumer enters the system with little to no knowledge of what the charges will be. To truly get costs under control, the consumer will have to play a more active role in what the charges will be.
On Thursday, February 25, President Barack Obama is calling on lawmakers, in a bipartisan meeting to present their best ideas on healthcare reform. Leading up to the summit, the Center for Health Transformation (CHT) is hosting the "
American People's Online Health Summit," an online dialogue and live blog. I am one of the participating members presenting our ideas on constructive and meaningful payment reform that brings about true transparency and payment rationality in the market and would encourage each of you to go online to
http://www.healthtransformation.net/ and participate in this discussion.
With the recent announcement by some of the largest insurance carriers in the United States regarding rate increases and the continual issue of budget shortfalls of states to support Medicaid cost, we are at crossroads of having to make tough choices. We all desire greater access to quality healthcare for all Americans but in doing so we must develop a payment approach that is supportive to the consumer, provider and plan sponsor.
As I see it, in the coming weeks we will have three potential outcomes of the healthcare debate:
- A healthcare bill is passed no matter what. What the bill contains or the cost of the bill itself is secondary to the main issue of just "pass something." The stakes are high for both Democrats and Republicans if a healthcare bill is passed - no matter what the bill is.
- No healthcare bill is passed. In this case we start from scratch. In some ways this is good and in other ways will we end up in the same position today of having two polarized positioned on healthcare.
- Baby steps accomplished. In my mind the best scenario is for rational bipartisan thinking to take hold and work on those items we all can agree on. There are many components of the current healthcare bill that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on and we should focus on those items and work toward resolution.
We can no longer wait and assume Washington will figure this out. It will require all of us to participate and make our opinions know. Please join the discussion occurring on the Center for Health Transformation blog.