Now’s The Time to Tell Washington What You Want
While it’s fun debating what might be an ideal health care system, the more relevant question over the next few weeks and months is: what kind of health reform legislation can get through Congress, and how can California consumers and patients impact the outcome? We’ve discussed the framework that Congressional leaders are starting with — it is not getting rid of Medicare, which apparently John R. Graham wants to do, the Wyden individual market approach preferred by Lucien Wulsin, or the full fledged single-payer system as advocated by Claudia Chaufan. The framework is similar to what President Obama advocated during his campaign, and is one that would be a major improvement over the status quo, depending on the details.
And it is up to our advocacy to help shape those specifics. We in California have an important voice: any health reform will need to go through not just two committees in the Senate, but three committees in the House where Californian Representatives are in leadership positions. It is in these committees that health reform will be shaped, for better and worse.
And so your voice is needed now.
So for readers of this blog, if you want health reform to include an idea or provision — a strong public health insurance option, assistance to low- and middle-income people to pay for coverage, a prohibition on insurers denying coverage for so-called “pre-existing conditions,” or an emphasis on covering preventative care — write to your Representatives today. President Obama did so himself recently, sending key Senators a letter detailing more of his requirements, from more emphasis on cost containment to the need for a public health insurance option.
On Friday, a “draft of a draft” of a health reform bill was released by Senator Ted Kennedy’s office. We’ll have an update and some analysis later at our Health Access blog. (Courtesy of The Hill, here’s a copy of the 170+ pages [PDF], which is understood to be only a part of a broader package.) The House is expected to have its own bill as well, with a similar framework but different details. The hope is that the both the House and Senate will pass their versions of health reform bills by the end of July, allowing for August and September to negotiate the differences and get a bill to the President’s desk.
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