Current Health Care Debate Similar To Early 1990s, NPR's Rovner Says

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 20 Nov 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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In the first of a series of question and answer sessions with journalists on the main domestic issues of the 2008 presidential election, the Columbia Journalism Review in its November/December issue interviewed Julie Rovner, a health policy reporter for NPR. According to Rovner, the current public discussion of health care reform "feels the same" as the discussion in 1992 because there are "businesses complaining about health care costs and a worried middle class." However, the "big difference" between the two debates "is this sort of cynical 'been there, done that, didn't work' feeling that wasn't there in 1991" but is there now, Rovner said. In addition, she added that "the numbers have gotten so much bigger": health care costs have grown; the number of uninsured residents has grown; and the "number of solutions we've tried and that have failed has gone up that much more."

Rovner said that if changes are not made to the health care system, 78 million baby boomers "who are rapidly approaching Medicare eligibility will start consuming a lot of expensive health care services," which is the "potential tidal wave of cost that we're looking at," adding, "[T]hat's the main reason that doing something about the health care system is an imperative."

Rovner says that journalists can do a better job of covering the health care debate by "putting things in context" and by doing "truth-squading when candidates start going after each other with charges and countercharges." She added, "The big story will be whether there will be some sort of change in the health care system, trying to cover the uninsured and controlling costs" (Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 2007).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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