Healthcare reform update

Karen Ignani, the President of America's Health Insurance Plans, gave a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in which she opined that the ongoing healthcare reform effort in Congress is off track. "[T]he bills before Congress settle for timid pilot programs, rather than requiring major changes; creating incentives that apply only to Medicare, rather than across the board; and establishing a new oversight body, but severely limiting its scope of review." Ms. Ignani offers five recommendations to achieve health care cost containment:

1. Set a National Goal and Measure Progress.
2. Build on the Pilots and Incentives in the Senate Legislation with a Comprehensive Plan to Introduce Health Care Delivery Reforms Across the System.
3. Reform the Legal System to Protect Patients and Allow Doctors and Hospitals to Deliver “Best Practice” Medicine.
4. Empower Patients and Their Doctors to Make the Most Informed Health Care Decisions.
5. Avoiding “Reforms” that Increase Costs, such as the additional fees and excise taxes on health plans and insurers.

As Ms Ignani points out, there's still time to get it right. Interestingly, Modern Healthcare reports that

A bloc of freshmen Democrats [in the U.S. Senate] is readying a legislative package of changes to a broad health reform bill that could affect the financial ledgers of hospitals and doctors.

Sen. Mark Begich, a first-term Democrat from Alaska, said that a number of his newly elected colleagues are unhappy with the current slate of provisions aimed at curbing runaway healthcare costs. “It's really going to focus on cost containment,” Begich said. “A lot of us freshmen came in here focused on how to do the business differently—not the same old way of just putting money on the table and hope that solves the problem.”

The Politico reports that Senate "Majority Leader Harry Reid has told senators they should expect roll call votes all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoon" following approval of women's health care amendment this afternoon according to this Reuters report.