Voices for Reform

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:

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: