Newsletters
Reforming Health Care; The Score; March, 2009
If all goes as planned, our country is expected to have a reformed health care system by December 31, 2009. The definition of reform isn’t at all clear, but as stated in Obama’s budget, the goal is to “put the Nation on a path to health insurance coverage for all Americans”. It’s an ambitious goal and vision and one many of us have heard before. We need to keep in mind other attempts to revamp our fragmented system have fallen short due to politics, self-interest, mismanagement of the process, or lack of support from the public. But, the timing just might be right this time. We all know something needs to change.
Last week President Obama hosted his first major conference in Washington to “kick-off” his health care reform effort. We’ve heard mixed reviews of the gathering, but at least the various stakeholders got together to start talking about it.
As we all know, having the vision and making it happen are two separate things. This month we’re going to look at some of the lessons learned with past attempts to change health care and evaluate where President Obama stands today in the context of the past. We’ll do this again in a few months to monitor our progress. Enjoy, and feel free to determine your own scores.
