I hope President Obama and Congressional Democrats take this week’s Massachusetts miracle to heart and abandon their tortured health care bills. We need a fresh start, and we still have 10 months before the next elections to figure out how—together, this time—we can build a health care reform that doesn’t mix the compassion of the tax collector with the efficiency of a driver’s license bureau.
A wise passage in the president’s first State of the Union message would announce that his health care ideals will change to help people who have insurance as well as those who don’t, that his legislation will include ideas from Republicans as well as Democrats, and that his Congressional allies will stop reflexively choosing more government over more freedom.
A year ago I was invited to the White House with other Congressional leaders from both parties to participate in a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit.” During the meeting the president reiterated his pledge to be bipartisan and transparent.
That day I had the chance to make a simple statement to Mr. Obama: “If you really want consensus, you need to encourage the speaker to have a true open process. This (meeting) is a good first step. But if this is all we do, it’s a sterile step. If you get everyone involved you are more likely to get a solution that everyone signs off on. I have sat or stood behind every president since Reagan in this room at bill signing ceremonies that were the result of consensus.”
The president’s response was straightforward: “If we can stay focused on solving problems…then I will do what I can through my office to encourage the kind of cooperation that you are encouraging.”
But rather than working with Republicans after that, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), negotiated their health bills behind closed doors. Now those bills are struggling, but I think there’s a way to make progress if they’ll seriously consider ideas like these:
· Transparency: Consumers need to make rational, cost-effective choices, but how can anybody do that without actually knowing the real price of their care? Even the most careful and attentive patient can’t be expected to understand that the $100 “mucus recovery system” is, in fact, $2 worth of Kleenex. Let’s stop that. We passed a bipartisan amendment in July that was a good start.
· Affordability: Let’s find as many ways as we can to expand opportunities for working people to access affordable private insurance. That could be by allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, or by reducing people’s taxes to help them pay for insurance.
· Help those with pre-existing conditions: This plan will allow us to take care of those Americans who need health insurance the most yet have the hardest time getting affordable insurance. We should ensure the sick get the health care they need and ensure that those with pre-existing conditions and chronic illnesses are able to afford private health care. Let’s help America’s sick by (1) requiring states to create, expand, and strengthen high-risk pools, reinsurance, and other risk-adjustment mechanisms, (2) providing federal funding for such programs, and (3) prohibiting insurance companies from canceling the coverage of Americans.
· Improve the solvency of Medicare and Medicaid: The Law of Holes says, “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Well, Medicaid and Medicare are not sustainable long-term. Instead of adding millions of new people to Medicaid, as the Democrats’ proposal does, let’s figure out a way to get high-quality health insurance to those who desperately need it.
My hope is that we can have a bipartisan solution based on approaches like these. The Democrats’ losses in the Virginia, New Jersey and now Massachusetts should be more than enough to open their hearts, their minds and their negotiating tables to new ideas, if for no other reason than it’s what Americans so plainly expect of them.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.