HEALTH POLITICS: More Talk, Maybe Then Some Action

"When Representative Tom Price spoke to the Roswell Kiwanians the other day, the first three questions concerned health care. When he appeared four days later before the Sandy Springs Rotarians, no one asked about it at all."

That's the lead on a New York Times story today on how health care is playing with voters. As Kevin Sack wrote, "Health care is an issue that can seem to vacillate in importance by the day, the place, and the audience." But he quotes Price, a conservative Republican physician from Georgia who holds Newt Gingrich's old seat, as saying that it's still one of the top three issues for every demographic group. While focusing on the presidential race, the piece also looks at how health care is playing out in congressional elections too.

We hope both parties keep talking about health care, because health care is one of those things where if there's no talk, it's unlikely that there will be any action. And just in today's news, here are some good reasons to keep talking:

1) Voters are confused. Very confused. They want to slow down health spending, but are having trouble figuring out which candidate would do what with which consquences. As Gary Andres writes in the Washington Times:

While voters convey some clear general preferences about the issue, confusion exists about its details and where the two presidential candidates stand on the topic. These gaps in public knowledge make the bridge between citizen opinion and public policy-making particularly challenging. Those are some findings from the most recent American Survey, conducted Aug. 18–22 (800 registered voters, +/-3.5 margin of error).

 

 

 

 

One example Andres provides: Asked what would happen if more people had coverage, 40 percent said rates would go down, 28 percent said they would go up, and 22 percent said it would make no difference.

2) Some insured people find their policies cancelled as soon as they get sick. California has been cracking down on rescissions. Here's an LA Times story about the latest settlement with Health Net, which is restoring coveraging to 926 people, paying $3.6 million in penalties, $14 million in medical reimbursements (but not admitting any wrongdoing).

3) The states can't fix all the challenges of cost, coverage, and quality on their own, as these reports from Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey show. Even if they had the money which, as South Carolina can attest, they don't.

So politicians please talk about health care, and talk about it honestly in a way voters can understand. And voters... please listen.