Interest Groups Ask President-Elect Obama To Address Health Care Reform, Other Issues

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health;  Smoking / Quit Smoking;  Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 18 Dec 2008 - 5:00 PST

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Most new presidential administrations "face a cacophony of competing demands" from interest groups, but "few presidents have been confronted with the sort of urgent and varied pleas" received by President-elect Barack Obama, USA Today reports. For example, Divided We Fail -- a coalition led by AARP that includes the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the Service Employees International Union -- has asked members to sign a petition that asks Obama "to follow through on your campaign promise and commit to making health care and financial security reform a priority in the first 100 days of your administration." In addition, the American Lung Association has asked Obama to ban smoking at all federal worksites, and the Sierra Club and the AFL-CIO have asked Obama to address health care reform as part of economic recovery efforts.

Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now, said that the Obama administration and Congress have the ability to address a number of large issues, such as health care reform, at the same time. He said, "There's no reason that Congress can only do health care, only do climate change." Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, said the Obama administration will "do the political heavy lifting between February and August" to address health care reform and other large issues.

According to USA Today, although "Obama has not discussed the timing of his agenda," he likely will first seek to enact a $600 billion economic stimulus package that includes additional federal Medicaid funds for states and funds for electronic health records, among other provisions (Dilanian, USA Today, 12/16).

Many Departures Expected at Public Health Agencies
FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, who on Tuesday announced plans to resign on Jan. 20, 2009, is "part of a parade of expected departures at the nation's crucial public health agencies," the New York Times reports. In addition to von Eschenbach, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni resigned at the end of October, and CDC Director Julie Gerberding in an internal e-mail sent in November wrote that she expects to leave "after the administration changes." National Cancer Institute Director John Niederhuber also likely will resign from the position, although he might remain at NCI.

In the past, the leaders of public agencies in some cases have continued their roles in new administrations, but the Obama administration "is expected to make a clean sweep in part because of repeated assertions that the Bush administration allowed politics to play an unusually forceful role in science policy, and because each of the current leaders has fierce critics on Capitol Hill and in the public health community," according to the Times. The "Obama administration's choice for each slot will signal how it plans to deal with issues like stem cell policy and the safety of imported drugs and foods; how it might take advantage of advances in genomic research; its approach to pandemic flu planning; and whether huge investments in bioterrorism prevention will continue," the Times reports.

Many observers consider Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein the leading candidate for FDA commissioner. Other possible candidates for FDA commissioner include Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Steven Nissen, Robert Califf of Duke University, and Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University. According to the Times, several individuals familiar with the situation said that the leading candidates for NIH director include Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; Elizabeth Nabel of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and Griffin Rogers of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (Harris, New York Times, 12/17).

Editorial
"Three factors argue against" early action by Obama on health care reform, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial states. "The first is that the field is a rat's nest of entrenched interests"; the second is the "disastrous experience" of the Clinton administration on health care reform in the 1990s; and the third is that Obama faces other "pressing priorities," such as the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the editorial.

"To take on health care reform in that context will require courage and confidence," but "Obama nonetheless has signaled his intention to tackle it," the editorial states. The editorial concludes, "There is no question but that American health care needs work -- to increase access, to improve quality and to make it affordable. Hats off to Mr. Obama for his willingness to pick up that bristling porcupine" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/17).

Opinion Piece
Obama and the new Congress should "embrace both trade and the domestic policy reforms that are needed to make openness acceptable to the American public," and one "reform stands out above all others: universal access to health care," Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, write in a Miami Herald opinion piece. According to the authors, the employer-based U.S. health care system means "workers can lose their health care when they lose their jobs." Because the fear of this loss is "terrifying," the authors believe many "no longer support trade expansion even if they believe it may on balance be for the greater good of the economy," because they think it might cost them their jobs.

The authors add, "Other countries have long realized that their citizens need assurance that they won't lose everything as a result of the adjustments required by trade agreements" and have implemented national health care systems. The authors write that Obama should link the issues of health care and trade to "shore up support for universal health care and make trade more attractive" (Bergsten/Offenheiser, Miami Herald, 12/16).

Letters to the Editor

• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Des Moines Register: The claim in a Dec. 6 Register letter to the editor that Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has not sought to address problems with the U.S. health care system is unfounded, Grassley writes in a Register letter to the editor. Grassley writes that he has worked "with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to develop reform initiatives for 2009." In addition, he writes, "Congress and the new president need to work together to make sure the maximum value is provided for every health care dollar spent in order to drive down the cost of insurance and make coverage affordable and accessible for every American," adding, "These changes and others are needed to strengthen and sustain the health care system for people in Iowa and across the country" (Grassley, Des Moines Register, 12/16).
  
  
• Michael Ferguson, Wall Street Journal: Ezekiel Emanuel and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a recent Journal opinion piece "mislead readers about the modern business reasons that employer-sponsored health insurance makes sense today," as "employer-led practices have provided improved employee wellness (disease prevention), better management of chronic diseases, and tangible incentives for high performing health care providers" -- innovations that "would be lost to people were the employer-sponsored health system to be dismantled," Ferguson, chief operating officer of the Self-Insurance Institute of America, writes in a Journal letter to the editor. He adds, "If the millions of people now covered by employer plans were dumped on the open market, they would also find that their benefits decline, costs escalate and their choices of coverage narrow," and "traditional commercial health insurance companies would be free of restraint on costs and coverage practices." In addition, he writes, "Reform of the U.S. health care system should focus on ways to control the costs of medical care and drugs, extend health coverage to the uninsured and install a health care information technology system to improve service and efficiency," adding, "All of that can be done while preserving employer-sponsored health care, which is the part of the system that really works" (Ferguson, Wall Street Journal, 12/16).

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