Senators Targeting Major Health Care Initiative For Elimination From Stim Bill
Okay, this is a pretty big deal. Two Senators are now targeting for elimination from the Senate stimulus bill a major Obama priority on health care, and reform advocates are worried that it could slow broader efforts to overhaul the health care system.
The details are buried in this Washington Post article on Senate skirmishing on the bill.
Here’s the deal: Dem Senator Ben Nelson and GOP Senator Susan Collins are asking the White House to eliminate some $200 billion worth of initiatives from the bill. Collins is taking her request to Obama himself this afternoon.
Among the items that the Collins-Nelson initiative is targeting: $1.1 billion for comparative medical research. That’s not your garden variety pork. It’s a key Obama priority on health care that is aimed at developing uniform treatment protocols, and “part of the foundation he is trying to build for health-care reform,” as WaPo puts it.
Reform advocates are upset about the move, and see it as an early test of the Obama administration’s willingness to hold firm against efforts to strip the stim bill of meaningful measures.
“This is a big deal,” Jacki Schechner, a top official at Health Care For America Now, tells me. “It’s very important this health care provision stays in. Investing in comparative research is about finding the best medical treatments — and that’s a down payment on better quality and better value health care.”
One key point here is that this might be the kind of area where Tom Daschle’s absence may be felt. Without Daschle, a major proponent of health care reform, how firmly will Obama hold on to priorities like this when pressure to strip such stuff from the bill mounts?
If Collins wants to take out the medical research measure for developing uniform treatment protocols because she doesn’t think it injects enough of the budgeted money quickly into the economy (is that her reason?), that doesn’t mean such a measure is dead unless getting a stimulus package through means that healthcare won’t get done because of financial restrictions. But healthcare is still very much on the table, right? I don’t know if this is an up or down situation for this issue. If not, it may be negotiable from a standpoint of pragmatism in getting the stimulus bill written and passed.
This comes down to people simply not getting the premise of the bill- a diverse group of “stimulators” going to diverse and varied sectors of the economy. First, people didn’t get family planning. Then, the national mall. Then, arts funding- which has thankfully been spared. Now this. All these things make sense and would be stimulative. Perhaps indirectly, but stimulative all the same.
Sell the bill and explain the concept- multiple stimulators going to diverse areas of the economy. The economy is a very diverse thing, it makes sense the bill is too. Don’t believe me? Look at Romer and Bernstein’s report- it’s all there. What jobs will be created, whats sectors will get aid, how much, etc., etc.
The problem is that your average American is not going to read that report- they need it explained to them.
re obama selling his stim plan, he’s taking new steps to do it:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/obama-to-circumvent-media-by-speaking-directly-to-public-via-video/
If there is one thing (and I would argue there isn’t just one, but leaving that aside…) that Republicans are universally horrendous at it is health care. They sabotaged Hilary’s effort for health care reform 15 years ago and seem poised to do the same thing now. Their opposition to SCHIP was disgusting. I wasn’t a Daschle fan and I do think he had to step down, but I REALLY REALLY hope this provision isn’t stripped from the stimulus package. Some downpayment is needed towards health care reform. The administration needs to do what others on this site have suggested, point by point explain the key aspects of this package and how they are important and will create jobs. Cut the pork out. Highlight the fact that the mayors and governors (Republicans included) are on board. Come on Plouffe!
We presumed, didn’t we, that Obama’s healthcare initiatives would gain the same sort of attacks that GAH properly notes attended the Clinton’s push in that direction. There’s a lot of serious money and ideological investment sitting on this one. Those of us who value this initiative (I grew up in Canada and, believe me, medical delivery and costs in that system make what’s going on here look like jungle barbarism) are going to have to put our activist shoulders to the wheel. This will be a huge fight and it’s only beginning now.
Health care isn’t shovel ready. They don’t even USE shovels!
So, by the logic of Repubs and Blue Dogs, health care can’t be stimulative.
This healthcare provision in the stimulus bill is not as benign as many of you seem to think. A comparative-effective research agency would have complete control of what treatments would be approved under your health insurance, as well as Medicare & Medicaid. In countries like the UK, which have such an agency, patients are routinely denied new treatments, citing cost-effectiveness. “Also, the agency can decide that it is not cost-effective to allow an older person to have certain medical treatments.