“As former colleagues in the United States Senate, we would like to congratulate you on your election as the 44th President of the United States and offer our commitment to working with you in a bipartisan fashion to reform our health care system,” wrote the group of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one Independent. “Over the last two years, we have come together as Democrats and Republicans because we believe that for health reform to succeed it must be bipartisan… we believe [these] principles outline the best way to reform the nation’s health care system and create the best “roadmap” to build bipartisan consensus on reform.”Its actually a big deal for the assembled Republicans to have signed a letter codifying universality and private insurance market reforms, so give Wyden his due on that. But these principles are also a walkback on the Healthy Americans Act. The fundamental principle of that bill was the end of the employer-based market and the total reorganization of how most Americans purchased health insurance. That made it harder to pass, but much better than the alternatives. The plans we're seeing from Obama and Baucus and other players, however, don't take that risk, and so this letter isn't defining it as core to the legislation's principles. It's important for everyone involved to be able to claim some intellectual influence on the final legislation, and that means they have to stick to principles that might be in the final legislation. But even if we pass the sort of bills we're looking at, and even if they show themselves a happy improvement over the current arrangement, in 10 years, we'll be looking at cost estimates, and wishing we'd been more attentive to Mr. Wyden. That said, I've heard that Obama has actually looked fairly closely at the HAA, and was rather impressed by its structure. So we could see some of its more radical lessons given life yet. But no one is willing to bet in that direction.The principles include:Ensuring that all Americans have health care coverage;Making health care coverage both affordable and portable;Implementing strong private insurance market reforms;Modernizing federal tax rules for health coverage;Promoting improved disease prevention and wellness activities, as well as better management of chronic illnesses;Making health care prices and choices more transparent so that consumers and providers can make the best choices for their health and health care dollars; andImproving the quality and value of health care services.
The letter was signed by: U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).
