Center for American Progress
August 2, 2012

The Center for American Progress convened leading health policy experts—including current and former federal and state officials, executives of health insurers and hospital systems, physicians, and economists—to develop bold and innovative solutions. These solutions are designed to reduce overall health care spending for both public and private payers.

Please join us as we release alternative strategies that would protect Americans’ access to necessary care. Several of the experts will be on hand to present the solutions, lead a discussion of the issues, and answer your questions.

From the Q&A discussion:

Harvey Fernbach, MD, a practicing physician with Physicians for a National Health Program: Wouldn’t you think that many of the bold solutions would do better if we simply expanded and improved Medicare, and take the insurance companies which are profit oriented and the businesses out of the equation because they wouldn’t have to play a major role.  That’s why President Obama was for it. I believe… we believe that… (inaudible) …a related metaphor… single payer is the gold medal for health care. I’d like to get your opinion on it.

Tom Daschle: Let me start with that because that’s as much of a political question as it is a medical one, or a health related question. I personally believe that a Medicare for all approach would be terrific. I’d be very enthusiastic about it. The problem is the current political lay of the land prevents it. So we have to deal with what’s possible, and in dealing with what’s possible, it seems to me that taking the concepts that we know could work, redesigning them and improving what we’ve got may the the next step. The ACA is the next step. It creates a new infrastructure that allows for a lot of the things we know work well, to work better across the entire country. But one day, perhaps, we’ll be in a position to alter that political landscape to accommodate something a little bit more aggressive.

Harvey Fernbach: (inaudible) … ACA eventually to single payer.

Tom Daschle: I think ACA puts us on the thirty yard line in terms of what it is we have to do with seventy yards to go. (Audience laughter.) But we’ve got a good start.

Video of CAP forum:
http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2012/08/cuttingcosts.html

Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

This is a followup to yesterday’s Quote of the Day message on a forum on recommendations to contain health care spending, sponsored by the Center for American Progress. It was noted that single payer advocates were once again excluded from the process. Well, not quite. PNHP’s Harvey Fernback was in the audience and asked a question that prompted Tom Daschle to proclaim that “a Medicare for all approach would be terrific” and he would be “very enthusiastic about it.”

Thanks, Harvey, for being there. It’s a lesson for all of us in our reform advocacy activities. Be there and do it!

Daschle says that we still have seventy yards to go, so let’s get with it.

Cutting Health Care Costs: Leading Experts Propose Bold Solutions

Center for American Progress
August 2, 2012
The Center for American Progress convened leading health policy experts—including current and former federal and state officials, executives of health insurers and hospital systems, physicians, and economists—to develop bold and innovative solutions. These solutions are designed to reduce overall health care spending for both public and private payers.
Please join us as we release alternative strategies that would protect Americans’ access to necessary care. Several of the experts will be on hand to present the solutions, lead a discussion of the issues, and answer your questions.
From the Q&A discussion:
Harvey Fernbach, MD, a practicing physician with Physicians for a National Health Program:Wouldn’t you think that many of the bold solutions would do better if we simply expanded and improved Medicare, and take the insurance companies which are profit oriented and the businesses out of the equation because they wouldn’t have to play a major role.  That’s why President Obama was for it. I believe… we believe that… (inaudible) …a related metaphor… single payer is the gold medal for health care. I’d like to get your opinion on it.
Tom Daschle: Let me start with that because that’s as much of a political question as it is a medical one, or a health related question. I personally believe that a Medicare for all approach would be terrific. I’d be very enthusiastic about it. The problem is the current political lay of the land prevents it. So we have to deal with what’s possible, and in dealing with what’s possible, it seems to me that taking the concepts that we know could work, redesigning them and improving what we’ve got may the the next step. The ACA is the next step. It creates a new infrastructure that allows for a lot of the things we know work well, to work better across the entire country. But one day, perhaps, we’ll be in a position to alter that political landscape to accommodate something a little bit more aggressive.
Harvey Fernbach: (inaudible) … ACA eventually to single payer.
Tom Daschle: I think ACA puts us on the thirty yard line in terms of what it is we have to do with seventy yards to go. (Audience laughter.) But we’ve got a good start.
Video of CAP forum:
http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2012/08/cuttingcosts.html

This is a followup to yesterday’s Quote of the Day message on a forum on recommendations to contain health care spending, sponsored by the Center for American Progress. It was noted that single payer advocates were once again excluded from the process. Well, not quite. PNHP’s Harvey Fernback was in the audience and asked a question that prompted Tom Daschle to proclaim that “a Medicare for all approach would be terrific” and he would be “very enthusiastic about it.”
Thanks, Harvey, for being there. It’s a lesson for all of us in our reform advocacy activities. Be there and do it!
Daschle says that we still have seventy yards to go, so let’s get with it.