New America Applauds Sen. Wyden's Health Reform Proposal

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) today unveiled a bold and comprehensive health reform proposal which he plans to introduce at the start of the 110th Congress in January 2007. An impressive collection of diverse labor, business, and patient advocate leaders joined him for the press conference in the Senate Finance hearing room, and they each expressed broad support for his approach -- centered around individual and shared responsibility -- and for his diagnosis that the time to reform health care in America is now. Sen. Wyden began by noting Congress had avoided serious discussions of health care reform since 1994.

Sen. Wyden explained that the HAA will:

1. guarantee every American access to the same health insurance options members of Congress have;
2. insure financial security to families, employers, and health care providers;
3. maintain private insurance;
4. lower health care cost growth over time; and
5. ensure that everyone in America will have access to appropriate health care when they need it.

Then those who came to support this effort explained in greater detail why they see promise in the approach embodied in the bill and why reform is so desperately needed today.

Andy Stern, President of SEIU, made it clear that United States employers cannot compete when they are forced to include the price of health care in their products while their competitors are immune from such pressures in their own countries. He noted the HAA, a principled and practical approach, would help workers, including health care workers, and employers alike. Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway, explained how his company’s new patient incentives have changed behaviors and lowered worker and company health care costs. Burd was proud to see the HAA has similar incentives and intent. He sees the American health care crisis as a bigger problem than social security that should be addressed right away.

The remainder of the speaking guests included Ron Pollack, Executive Director of the consumer advocacy group Families USA, who said the HAA includes many elements he could support and was a good first step in a new national conversation. Mike Roach, a small business owner from Portland, spoke of the strain the current system puts on employers who have long tried to provide their employees with adequate coverage. Don Schumacher, Executive Director of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization spoke to how the bill made it possible to imagine a much better future for the many patients who could benefit from more humane end of life care. Finally Patricia Maryland, MD, who helped lead the Citizens' Health Care Working Group on a nationwide study of what Americans want out of health care, reported on their findings: a less complicated system, the right care at the right time, and no longer having to decide who in the family gets health insurance and who goes without. She also spoke passionately of the human cost borne by the uninsured and their loved ones.

John Sheils of the Lewin Group consulting firm was the lead author of a report with cost and coverage estimates, the highlight of which is their judgment that the HAA would lower cost growth over time and save enough money to finance universal coverage without raising tax rates.

Before taking questions from the assembled press corps Senator Wyden acknowledged that Len Nichols, Director of the Health Policy Program at New America, had played an indispensable role in helping him and his staff work through various aspects of this ambitious and wide-ranging proposal which includes FDA reform and incentives for more cost-effective care to be delivered to all patients. Sen. Wyden was enthused by the early response to his bill, and made clear that he would push health care reform to the top of the America’s agenda in the next year and in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.

For more detailed information, please see the PDF documents below.