AHIP Speakers Debate Health Care Reform

As far as healthcare policy goes, Burman set the landscape on which the debate will take place, one in which spending for entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare account for increasing portions of the federal budget. Anyone seeking to enhance those programs, or to establish a federal entitlement that would guarantee health care coverage for all Americans, “is going to have to be able to argue that this new entitlement isn’t going to make the problem worse,” he said.

The current downswing in the economy “makes it even harder” to enact any major changes in healthcare policy, Murphy said.

However, Brazile said that should a Democrat be victorious in November, expectations will be high for some policy proposals to be unveiled in the first 100 days of the next presidency.

“It’s almost like a deal breaker” if a Democratic president were to shelve their healthcare proposal, she said. Both Obama and Clinton “will want to get something out on the table quickly,” she added.

Murphy raised the notion that proponents of universal health care may have a better chance to accomplish at least part of their goal under the administration of a Republican open to compromising with a Democratic Congress, such as McCain. If instead faced with a Democratic White House and Congressional majority, Republicans would be more likely to block even incremental legislation, just as Democrats have done during the Bush administration, he said.

Murphy also responded to a question of why nobody speaks about “socialized” healthcare anymore, saying the term has become a code word for a single-payer system that has little support from Americans who already have coverage and are generally satisfied with it.

“Everybody wants to change the system,” he said, “but nobody wants to change their plan.”