Lasting Health Reforms Requires Consensus

Marguerite Bowling / June 04, 2009

With Congress and President Barack Obama ramping up their health care reform rhetoric this week, it seems all of the major players in the health policy arena are weighing how likely meaningful health care reform will pass and be doable for Americans and the private health care system.

One theme everyone seems to be in agreement with is that any health care legislation must have broad support to actually pass and be implemented. “If Congress wants long-lasting health care reform, they’ll need broad consensus on what that is,” Heritage’s Nina Owcharenko said at a health care briefing on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

Broad consensus means forgoing some of the more contentious health policy components that threaten to dissolve health reform efforts — much like what happened during the Clinton health reform efforts in 1993 — Owcharenko noted. The Health Policy Consensus Group, a coalition of free-market think tanks of which Heritage is a member, already has identified deal breakers that consumers should be aware of during the health care debates. Those include: (more…)