Jim Meffert on Health Care Summit.

February 22, 2010

Friends:

This morning President Obama released his proposal for overhauling our health care system and later this week the President will host a bipartisan health care summit with the hope that he and the Congress can craft a meaningful bill.

Like many of you, I’m hopeful that the President can be successful but given the past year of obstructionism by the minority, I am skeptical. I know when people you are “negotiating” with are stalling. We reached that point a few months ago. 

If it becomes clear (again) that the GOP is simply stalling then the Democrats in Congress should do one of the following:

  • Pass the Senate bill and send it to President Obama! The House of Representatives should pass the Senate bill in order to get it to Obama for signature. After the Senate bill is signed into law, then Congress can turn its attention to revising it with provisions favored by the House. The Democrats need to stand up and get something done – after all, Medicare and Social Security passed without need for a single Republican vote and today they are the most important federal programs ever established. 
  • Let the GOP Filibuster – it’s time to call them out! Reconcile the existing House and Senate bills and bring them to a vote. If the GOP wants to filibuster, let them – it’s time for the American people to see that the Republicans have no interest in solving the health care problem. Ultimately the Democrats can use the budget reconciliation process to pass a combined House-Senate bill which would only require 51 votes in the Senate. Why are the Democrats ‘enabling’ the GOP effort by letting them off the hook?

Having spent nearly 20 years on health care policy and actively advocating for systemic reform, I have a few ideas on what needs to get done recognizing that whatever passes is truly just a first step and that more reforms will be needed to provide universal coverage and affordable health care to all Americans. 

Should a new plan emerge from the President’s bipartisan summit, there are some key elements that I believe are essential as a first step in health reform:

  • Primary Care and Prevention: We must rebuild a primary care delivery system. This system needs to be universally accessible, both financially and geographically, and focus on prevention. 
  • Focus on delivering Primary Care in Places People Work and Live: We should invest in community based primary care clinics in schools, community centers, workplaces, and malls. We should establish goals for decreasing the incidence of preventable chronic conditions like diabetes and congestive heart failure. 
  • True Competition & Public Option: We need to allow true market supply principles to take hold. We need to allow the laws of supply and demand to prevail. A public option is one mechanism to essentially ‘force’ competition. That said, we need to remove barriers that inhibit competition – some are barriers placed in law and others are practical barriers. Given the nature of the health care industry and the lack of ‘real competition’ we need a robust public option of some sort to ensure that real competition can exist and that consumers of health care have meaningful options.
  • It’s your money: Health plan executive bonuses, pharmaceutical company profits, specialist salaries, new hospitals, and everything else are paid for with our health care premiums! It’s your premium money that pays for all of this. We must decide where that money should go and break apart the monopolistic tendencies. The health care delivery system should not receive excessive profits because people get sick – we will never control costs until we change this model. 

Americans have tired of the health care debate but that doesn’t mean they don’t want action. Voters I talk to are getting as frustrated with the Democrats as they are with the Republicans. As our friends from SEIU said last week at a rally in St. Paul – it’s time to get a spine! 

We won in 2006 and 2008 because we had the better ideas. Voters want action, and the Democrats are in a position to take action. As your Congressman, I’ll fight the fight and stop enabling those who just say NO – enough already, force the health care issue and take a stand for middle America. 

That’s what the President should do, and what House and Senate Democrats should do. And that’s what I’ll do when I get to Congress!

Thanks for listening!

Best,

Jim Meffert