Senator Hillary Clinton, 2008 Presidential Candidate, Releases Proposal for Health Care Reform

Health care spending could be reduced by billions of dollars according to New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who recently released a new plan for health care reform. The multi-step approach would create a “National Prevention Initiative” that would require the government to cover certain preventative treatments and wellness programs. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, which is comprised of independent experts in prevention and primary care and headed by the Department of Health and Human Services, would determine which treatments would be covered.

“We are expecting health care reform and the coverage for uninsured Americans to be a key topic in the 2008 presidential election,” said Kristie Darien, executive director of the NASE legislative office. “Current Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama are all touting plans that offer some measure of cost control and the coverage of all uninsured Americans, but their approaches differ.”

Senator Edwards’ plan borrows heavily from state models that mandate coverage and require everyone to obtain insurance by 2012. Costs would be offset by discontinuing President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Senator Obama lends his support to health IT and preventative care measures, with the government picking up the tab for other expenses like compensating private insurers for catastrophic coverage costs.

Sen. Clinton’s proposal would seek to increase funding for health IT by offering grants to medical institutions and professionals to ease upgrade costs. It encourages insurance pooling by making it unlawful to deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or to charge these individuals higher premiums. The plan allows Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs and rework the medical malpractice system and promises to implement a “best practices” model to increase efficiency in treatment. The plan also calls for simplifying care and treatment options for the chronically ill in order to prevent repeat treatments and the complications that could result.

“The NASE supports efforts to increase preventative care and wellness in the workplace,” said Kristie Darien, executive director of the NASE legislative office. “These long overlooked measures do much to decrease health care costs for individuals and employers. We are hoping all health reform proposals put forth by both the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates for 2008 will include a preventative care and wellness component.”

A recent RAND Corporation study showed the annual average health care costs for moderately obese people were about 20 to 30 percent higher than health care costs for normal weight people. To read more about incorporating wellness into the workplace, visit the NASE Health Resource Center at http://health.nase.org/wellness.asp.