While the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of an estimated $829 billion healthcare reform plan (see Washington roundup, p. 3), a grassroots group comprised of 33 state think tanks revealed details on their own proposal, during a press conference yesterday.
The patient-centered plan was adapted from a national study by public policy specialist Art Laffer, and serves as a stark contrast to the bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) is proposing to overhaul the nation's beleaguered healthcare system.
The group was represented by John Tillman, CEO, Illinois Policy Institute (Chicago); Donna Arduin, Partner, Arduin, Laffer & Moore (Tallahassee, Florida); Arlene Wohlgemuth, Senior Fellow, Texas Public Policy Foundation (Austin); Tarren Bragdon, CEO, Maine Heritage Policy Center (Portland Maine); Linda Gorman, Healthcare Policy Center Director, Independence Institute (Golden, Colorado); and Roger Stark, Center for Health Care Policy Analyst, Washington Policy Center.
The six members wasted no time in distancing themselves from the public option plan.
"Maine is the poster child for why a public plan is a bad idea," Bragdon said during the conference. "What we've seen in [Maine's public plan] is that cost has risen and it's not reaching the uninsured. Premiums are up 74% in just four years and are just covering 3% of the uninsured."
Maine made the move toward its public option initiative dubbed Dirigo back in 2005.
"Dirigo is Latin for I lead by example, but in the case of Maine's [public option plan] it means you lead by a bad example. [Because of the soaring cost of] the program, it has been closed to new members," Bragdon said. "If you have healthcare expenses over $100,000 they won't cover you [in Maine's public plan]. Our main concern is that Washington doesn't create a problem on the national level like Maine did on the state level."
The group also sharply criticized Canada's healthcare system – and its socialized medicine policy.
"Patients feel total helplessness because everyone is bound by red tape," Gorman said. "The main tale of woe is that doctors don't care about the patients because they're unable to do anything because of the government's control of the system."
Instead of a public plan the group said that government ought to focus its energies on looking at more simplistic solutions, such as empowering the healthcare consumer and letting he or she have more control over how they purchase their healthcare plans.
Some of the solutions would include an effort that would allow individual ownership of insurance policies. To do this the tax deduction that allowed for employers to own a patient's insurance would instead be given to the individual. There would also be a call for an elimination of unnecessary scope-of-practice laws and allow non-physician healthcare professionals to practice to the extent of their education and training. This would call for stronger more viable retail clinics and safely increase competition and access to care.
Another measure calls for the interstate purchasing of insurance. Policies in some states tend to be more affordable because they include fewer bells and whistles, according to Stark.
The group also stressed the reallocation of the majority of Medicaid spending into simple vouchers for low-income individuals to purchase their own insurance.
Finally the group said that a reduction of the number of mandated benefits that insurers are required to cover would also create a stronger more viable healthcare market.
By empowering patients and doctors to manage healthcare decisions, a patient-centered healthcare reform would directly address the distortions weakening the current healthcare system and would simultaneously control costs, increase health outcomes, and improve the overall efficiency of the healthcare system, the group said.
But many in attendance of the press conference asked if the group's plan at coming up with a healthcare reform plan was moot with the Senate Finance Committee's Tuesday vote.
"I think this one of many votes to come," Tillman said. He argued that the healthcare reform debate is far from over and still has a ways to go before the finish line is in sight.
He added that now that the public has a tangible proposal they can look at, it's up to the states to let the federal government know that there are alternatives out there worth pursuing.
"We're hoping now to have a grass roots movement ... and see town hall meetings addressing these alternatives," Tillman said. "If we truly rely on and trust patients to focus on their care ... wellness will improve and the cost will go down."
Omar Ford, 404-262-5546;