This morning I was interviewed by ABC’s Dr. Tim Johnson. Like many observers, he was concerned that Tom Daschle’s departure has dealt a serious blow to healthcare reform.
I disagree. On the one hand, Daschle is well-liked in Congress and as the President’s emissary could have brokered some deals. On the other hand, Daschle was expected to compromise with conservatives –which might have meant giving in on issues that more progressive reformers consider essential to reform.
I’ve written about why Daschle’s withdrawal is not a disaster for healthcare reform over at the gurardian.co.uk. Click here to read the piece and comment. (Or come back here with your comment)
I believe Daschle’s ties to major players in health care proved too much to overcome.
I’ve had concerns about Daschle having been an advisor to Alston & Bird. Although Daschle was not a registered lobbyist, his firm was paid $5.8 million between January and September to represent companies and associations before Congress and the executive branch, with 60 % of that money coming from the health industry.
Alston’s clients besides HealthSouth Corp. is the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, a coalition of nursing homes (which includes Manor Care and the Carlyle Group). This worries me when it comes to the Nursing Home Transparency and Quality of Care Improvement Act.
Another familiar name that signed on with Alston & Bird after he left Bush’s administration is Tom Scully, a Senior Counsel in Alston & Bird’s Washington, D.C. office with his practice focusing on health care regulatory and legislative matters, as well as on advising clients on health policy and strategies for healthcare delivery.
Gregory–
This is all very interesting . . .
It may be that if we want a healthcare czar who is not beholden ot anyone in the healthcare industry, we’ll have to look outside Washington–
I know that former
Oregon Governor Dr. John
Kitzhaber is completely clear, and I’m sure there are many healthcare refomers who have had the good sense to stay away from healthcare money.
You have to know that someday someone will bring it up, and it will undermine your credibility.
I wonder if all of this will make the
adminisration more concerned about Sanjay Gupta’s relationship with the drug industry?
Dr Elizabeth Smith, Founder of the Community Medical Foundation in Houston. No ?able funding, no ties to politics. Beholden to no-one except her vision and committment to a patient-centered healthcare system.
Looks like you made an intelligent opinion Maggie. TheHill.com has reported that Sens. Baucus and Kennedy have sent a letter to President Obama to assert the need to act quickly to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, and affirm their continuing commitment to enacting comprehensive healthcare reform this year.
I agree with Joe Trippi’s piece in Huff Post yesterday.Daschle- a good man- was “trapped” like most long term Washington insiders by a terribly corrut system. If you didn’t “play” forget getting elected.
OBAMA IS CHANGING THAT!
That is why we really need some genuine Washington outsiders like Kitzhaber and others to come in fast.
Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton,Pa
I am so happy that Daschle is out. He lost his senate seat because people in his state lost confidence in him. Why drag him back? That said, we do need a fix for health care, badly. I work as an administrator for a small medical practice, so I think I have some expertise in this area. I feel the fix should start with the private insurance companies. We need to move in the direction of indemnity insurance and health savings accounts. With the popularity of HMO’s for so many years, people took advantage of their plans and their doctors because a visit to the doctor only cost them $5. Health insurance should work more like car insurance. You don’t use your car insurance to fill up your tank or get new tires.
If everyone had a reasonable deductible, they would be more careful about how and when to use the medical system. Then we need to overhaul the medicare and medicaid system. Since we already have the largest socialized health care system in the world, we need to get rid of the fraud and waste. There is already enough money in the system to get it done right, throwing more money at it will only cause more corruption.
This problem is as plain as the nose on my face, why can’t others see it, especially in Washington?
Marion wrote:
“If everyone had a reasonable deductible, they would be more careful about how and when to use the medical system.”
When you are dealing with fear caused by potential life and death situations and fear of future life quality, and when you throw into this brew information asymmetry and caveat emptor advertising as well, you will never get the patients to understand what to do correctly from the bottom up. You need top down accurate information dissemination before you can even try such misguided supposed consumer directed actions, IMO!
Maggie,
Speaking of Sanjay Gupta (for Surgeon General)…conflicted he would indeed be, with current speaking fees of $50,000 to $75,000 per event. Someone who charges that much has no place in government.
jms
Lisa, Marion, NG, Gregory, Rick, jms
Lisa, thanks for hte vote
Marion & NG– NG is right, Marion. We have quite a bit of research that shows that when people have a high deductible they are just as likely to forego necessary medical care as they are to skip unnecessary care.
Unfortunately, a lot of hype in the system encourages people to over-use medical care (direct-to-consumer drug ads on TV, hospital ads on the radio urging average-risk people to come in diagnostic testing “just to be sure,” even some doctors who urge patients to undergo procedures that we know offer no proven benefit for patients.
Given all of the hype and misinformatin–added to the fact that medicine is a very complicated science–we need evidence-based guidelines, coming from a national health board, explaining “best pracice” for patients who fit a certain profile.
Even then, most patients would have to depend on their doctor or read and follow the guildeines. When you begin talking about what is appropriate for a patient of a certain age, who is suffering from two or more co-morbidities, who has a brother who had a prostate cancer etc. things quickly become confusing for someone reading at an 8th grade level (many, many Americans) to sort out.
Gregory– yes, there is no “vacuum” in Congress. There are strog people there who are committed to national health reform. That said, I’m hearing that they may not try to pass legilsation promising universal coverage until 2010–and then I wouldn’t expect it to be fully implemented until 2012.
Rick–
I don’t quite agree that Daschle was “trapped” in a corrupt system. No one put a gun to his head and demanded that he charge speaking fees of $4500 from the American Hospital Assocaition.
And this was money to put in his pocket–not money to fund a campaign.
Apparently he and his wife life very well in a home worth millions. She is an aviation lobbyists, and apparently that is a very lucrative line of work. But he has children form a previous marriage and apparently explained that he has been trying to amass a fortune over the past few years in order to build an estate for them.
If we could measure all of the harm that inheritances have cause–both for people who believe they have to build an “estate” for thier children to love and remember them–and among the children waiting to inherit and then divvy up said estate . .
Finally, there are Congressmen who have been in Washington for many years without being corrupted by money.
jms– I agree; speaking fees of $50,000 to $75,000
seem excessive unless someone is collecting money for a special reason: to build a campaign war chest or to pay off legal bills.
Otherwise, no one needs $50,000 for a few hours work and such over-reaching does undermine credibility.