HEALTH POLITICS: Baucus, Kennedy Seek Health Care Reform This Year

Two key Senate Democrats, Max Baucus and Edward Kennedy, jointly and publicly reiterated their commitment to major health reform this year, with or without the help of Tom Daschle.

Daschle's withdrawal as nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services set off a lot of Beltway speculation about whether health reform would slip on the agenda. But in a letter to President Obama, Kennedy, Chairman of the HELP Committee, and Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee, made clear that their goals and commitment are unchanged. They want to overhaul the American health care system, and they want to do it in 2009. They outlined not only the economic imperative for reform, but said it was their "moral duty to ensure that every American can get quality health care."

As New America's Health Policy Director Len Nichols described, the case for major reform is as compelling as ever. As the latest unemployment figures make even more clear, hundreds of thousands of Americans are newly unemployed and hence at risk of losing health insurance for themselves and their families. Huge and rapidly escalating health care costs can mean that even the insured can find themselves with enormous medical debt. As Senators Kennedy and Baucus point out:

The ranks of the uninsured grow larger each day. The cost of health care to families, businesses and government are crippling and, although we spend more on health care than any other country, the quality of care provided by America's health care system is often uneven compared to other industrialized nations.

While asking the President to move quickly in replacing Daschle, Senators Kennedy and Baucus have signaled that they will stick to an aggressive agenda on health reform. They have been meeting with all sorts of groups to get ready for months. Congressional leadership, health stakeholders, labor leaders, and the American public are still ready for comprehensive health care reform.