The “Real” News About Healthcare Reform

The Providence Journal and Rhode Island progressives are doing a disservice to the people of our state by advancing a biased and non-realistic perspective on the federal healthcare reform debate.

There are few issues that are more personal or important than planning for the care that can preserve the health of ourselves and our families. But what governmental approach best helps us accomplish this?

Currently, our state is following the federal Obamacare approach of seeking to insure more people with government-run Medicaid or with a one-size-fits-all government-mandated private insurance plan. This approach is in a death-spiral. In Rhode Island and across the nation, premiums and deductibles have risen beyond affordability; costs to taxpayers have exploded; the supply of doctors, insurance plan choices, and the availability of actual care are all plummeting.This is an unsustainable trajectory.

The U.S. Congress proposed reforms take an opposite approach. The goal of the reforms is NOT to force more people to buy or enroll in expensive government-approved insurance. Rather, the goal is to offer citizens more and lower-priced private insurance options and to let them choose whether or not they want to have health insurance … and what type and level of insurance they believe is best for them.

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Compassion should not be measured by how many people are covered by inefficient government insurance or by how much money we throw at the problem. This is the biased, government-centric lens through which the left and the ProJo view the proposed reforms.

As Congress recognizes, there are a number of patient-centric reforms that could significantly reduce premium and out-of-pocket costs, even while expanding consumer choice and improving the quality of care: reducing mandates for services that patients do not want or will never need; allowing inter-state health insurance competition; allowing group purchasing; or encouraging expanded Health Savings Account (HSA) and other payroll deduction programs.

Medicaid, is perhaps the most contentious and misunderstood issue. Medicaid insurance is not necessarily good insurance and it does not always lead to good health care. With many doctors leaving the program because of its stingy payouts, and with enrollment levels continually on the rise, many Medicaid patients cannot get an appointment with a doctor in a timely manner, and when they do, suffer from substandard care.

Again, the new Medicaid reforms seek to reverse these trends. What will not happen is that people will be thrown off the system. What will happen is that Medicaid will be returned towards its original mission of providing health insurance for the neediest Americans; poor children, pregnant women, and the disabled elderly. In recent decades, and especially under Obamacare, eligibility standards have been dramatically expanded to include single and working individuals and families far above the poverty line. Medicaid was not originally intended to be an entitlement for able-bodied, working Americans.

All the while, taxpayers have been asked to bear the burden of this increasingly expensive, expansive, and ineffective Medicaid system.

First, the new reforms would cut the rate of enrollment in Medicaid by tightening the eligibility requirements to serve only the neediest among us. Under these new guidelines, while no one will be thrown off, it is through attrition, as people’s financial circumstances improve, that many will naturally leave the system.

Second, Medicaid reform will protect taxpaying families and businesses from never-ending increases; in effect, putting the system on a much-need budget. This will save money for federal and state taxpayers.

Third, the reforms will give states unparalleled flexibility, via a capped, block-grant type arrangement. With limited funds, based on population, states will be free to innovate and to decide how federal funds can best serve its low-income and disabled populations. For example, not only could enrollment parameters be customized by state, but states may be able to opt for a work-requirement or a co-pay for those above poverty levels. There is even some discussion of a voucher, whereby recipients could have public Medicaid funds instead follow them to a private insurer of their choice. Rhode Island, the trail-blazer when it comes to Medicaid block-grants, should embrace this option.

In summary, the concept of a government-run health insurance market has failed. Rhode Islanders will be better served when they have expanded options to purchase or enroll in one of the many new plans that will best meet their needs at the lowest possible price, and at quality levels.

Levels of money and government-mandated insurance enrollment are not the only standards by which the media, the public, and lawmakers should judge the federal reforms about to be implemented. Freedom of choice, affordability, and quality of care should be the primary metrics.

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