Voices for Reform

REFORM: Hollywood Speaks Out for Health Care Reform

Health Policy — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:05:00 -0400

Where can you watch Morgan Freeman, Dakota Fanning, Ben Affleck, and Reese Witherspoon together on one screen? No, it’s not the next summer blockbuster, but a new public service announcement by the AARP along with Hollywood big shots, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Motion Picture & Television Fund. It's all part of the Divided We Fail Campaign to find a bipartisan way of making health care available and affordable. Bill Novelli, CEO of the AARP said:

We need to build a national conversation around these issues, and the entertainment industry is uniquely suited to help us do that. We must get everyone—individuals, companies, and policymakers—involved, regardless of their political persuasion. Only then will we be able to address these very serious challenges successfully.

The partnership adds the voices of more than 500 Hollywood writers and producers to the health care dialogue. Our new summer colleague Elena Harman pointed us to this USA Today article, (check out Heatlh Populi for some in depth liner notes to the campaign) which reports that filmmakers plan to:

Produce TV shows and movies that talk about health care issues accurately
Push health care reform with political leaders
Set an example by examining in-house health insurance plans

Hollywood can direct attention to the brewing national health care debate because of the entertainment industry's wide viewership. As Neal Baer, producer of Law & Order: SVU and Harvard Med School grad said, “Television, like it or not, teaches people. Writers are speaking to millions of people. Any forum that brings these issues to the forefront is both welcome and needed.”

VOICES FOR REFORM: Senator Durenberger and the Need for Reform

Paul Testa — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:47:00 -0400

If we learned anything from childhood trips to Browerville, it's that good things come from Minnesota. Take Bob Dylan, Garrison Keillor, or our mother's pickle recipe, for examples. Of course, if you're not convinced by pickles and pop, you should try listening to the state's former Senator, Dave Durenberger (R-MN) talk about health reform, as he did today before the Committee on Ways and Means' Subcommittee on Health.

Serving on both the Senate finance and health committees during his three terms in office from 1978–95, Durenberger knows health care. Further, as a man who witnessed firsthand the failings of the 1993–94 reform efforts, Durenberger has a sense of the kind of the bipartisan compromises that it will take to make lasting health reform a reality. When he talks, we and members of Congress listen.

Our quick takes from the former Senator from the Land of 10,000 Lakes:

The time to act is now: "Not since 1992 have individuals been so concerned about their financial well-being," Durenberger noted, and a major part of their concern is the rapid escalation of health care costs. With average family premiums rising from 7 percent of the median family income in 1987 to 17 percent in 2007, we couldn't agree more.

Health reform requires leadership on a national level: Predicting that leadership will be the “biggest factor” in accomplishing reform, he called on the next president to begin by giving “Americans a view of what is possible in a country as rich as ours,” because “unless the people are on board you’re going to lose.”

Payment reform is key: Noting the emphasis by presidential candidates on cost containment, Durenberger stressed the need to move to a system in which we pay for performance. He noted that Republicans and Democrats already agree on such things as the need for comparative effectiveness research and information technology.

Let's see—pay for performance, national bipartisan leadership, and an urgency of action—yeah, you betcha, we'd like to hear more of that. Now pass the pickles.

VOICES FOR REFORM: Preaching Hope to Health Care Journalists

Julie Barnes — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:59:00 -0400

Call us optimistic cheerleaders if you must, but our mission is to preach hope and dispel fears about the possibility of national health care reform. We took this message to hundreds of health care journalists at their recent conference—Health Journalism 2008—knowing that our friends in the media are sharp about spotting the problems but focus less on reporting the solutions.

While we are optimistic about the chances of health reform, we are not stupid—we are preparing for the battles that will inevitably come. Our preparation, however, includes facilitating a conversation among divergent interests in the health care community—and pointing out just how many things we can agree upon.

Some of the areas of agreement (as well as the battleground) were apparent in our health care reform discussion with Karen Davis, President of The Commonwealth Fund, David Himmelstein, M.D., associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Tom Miller, resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute, on Friday, March 28. Indeed, there was common ground on several core issues:

Americans pay more and get less care
More preventative care and a renewed focus on delivering quality health care will help reduce costs
We need national health reform
Consumers, industry stakeholders and policymakers are focused on solutions earlier in the debate than they were in 1993.

In fact, when the panel's moderator, Julie Appleby of USA Today, asked us to name the single biggest impediment to reform, I responded: "Getting everyone to the table to talk—and talk fast." The fact is that there is much to discuss and agree upon—and the sooner we can identify the areas of consensus, the sooner we can focus on how to resolve the points of contention. In the meantime, let's all think positive—rah, rah, Go Team!