The panelists today are Tom Daschle, Bill Frist, Karl Rove and Howard Dean, and the moderator is health journalist Susan Dentzer (Editor-in-Chief, Health Affairs).
First topic: Harry and Louise (Susan calls them The Two Horsepeople of the Healthcare Apocalypse). Where are they today?
TD – Want to get something done, concerned about costs of healthcare.
BF – Cost. Is a changed system going to be more expensive for them.
HD – Need a public option (not replacement).
KR – Cost, portability, relationship with doctor. 70% with insurance view their current healthcare as good or excellent.
Second topic: current plans on the legislative table.
BF – Responsibility to insure uninsured (a number he puts at 15-18 million). Mirrors a point KR made in response to HD – the risk of “crowd-out”, i.e., people being “dumped” from private plans and other market-distorting effects of having a public plan.
SD – Public plan in House bill, not clear in Senate. Outcome?
HD won’t prognosticate. Comes back to putting both options on the table.
KR – Don’t need public plan to provide choice, cf Medicare drug plan.
Panel drinking game: take a shot every time someone cites a poll with obviously biased question language. Seriously, people, room full of empiricists here.
Third topic: how to pay?
BF – wins for working “taxes” and “spending” into a single sentence.
HD – Gas tax at 10 cents a gallon would pay the whole thing.
TD – Will lose the debate if people believe the reforms won’t create savings overall.
HD and KR fight about whose deficit is bigger, and I’ll move the rest to a new post.
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BIO 2009: Wednesday Keynote Lunch Panel on Health Reform Live-ish Blog Part 2 « The Cross-Border Biotech Blog // May 20, 2009 at 2:18 pm |
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