As Health Reform Legislation Moves Along, Questions and Concerns Remain
| Read a comparison of the health system reform bills to the State Society's eight principles. |
The US Senate’s vote on Nov. 21, 2009, to begin debate on health system reform legislation, was one more step in the Congressional process. Previously, the US House of Representatives had approved HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
But will these steps move the nation closer to a better health care system and, more importantly, better health care for patients?
The Pennsylvania Medical Society, while pleased with several of the elements of this legislation, has serious concerns about the lack of any substantive medical liability reform, a permanent fix to the Medicare physician payment system, and protections for the patient-physician relationship.
The State Society has analyzed federal legislation, using our Eight Essential Principles of Health System reform for comparison.
“We developed our principles with this purpose in mind,” said James A. Goodyear, MD, president of the State Society. “We needed a guide or a roadmap, something to use to test legislation against our core beliefs.”
Both the House and Senate bills far exceed 1,000 pages and both will cost around $1 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have estimated that by 2019, under the Senate bill, the number of non-elderly people who are uninsured will be reduced by about 31 million, leaving about 24 million non-elderly residents uninsured.
Under the House bill, the number of non-elderly people uninsured would be reduced by about 36 million, leaving about 18 million uninsured. Under both the Senate and House bills, about one-third of the remaining uninsured residents would be unauthorized immigrants and therefore not eligible for coverage.
But one gap in the legislation – the lack of comprehensive medical liability reform – is particularly notable. The State Society’s health reform principles state that such reform is “essential.”
“Our members have told us in no uncertain terms that medical liability reform has to be included in health system reform. It’s a very sensitive subject in Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Goodyear.
Neither the House nor the Senate bills address the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Medicare payment formula.
Last Updated: 12/2/2009