Senators Identify Key Components of a Successful Health Care Reform Plan

The enactment of a national health care reform plan that focuses on prevention, wellness and quality will result in significant cost savings, enabling the federal government to address the vexing problems of rising health care costs and the growing number of uninsured individuals. That's according to Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who spoke during a health care forum sponsored by The Atlantic magazine here on Feb. 11.

"If you have the kind of health care reform that focuses on quality health for everyone, you save bundles of money and you solve the long-term entitlement problem," said Bennett, who took part in a panel discussion on health care reform with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "It seems counterintuitive. But it is very true. It has been demonstrated again and again."

There is a misperception among some that universal health coverage will increase health care costs, thus making comprehensive health care reform cost-prohibitive, said Bennett. "But the more we dig into this and the more time we spend down in the weeds, the more we discover that the secret to cost control in health care is quality."

The nation's health care system, he said, is based on a perverse set of incentives that fails to reward quality and favorable outcomes. "The present system has no economic incentives for everyone to stay well -- if you want to get any economic benefit out of the present system, you have to get sick, and that is a perversion to start with."

Moreover, physicians and other providers are paid to provide more services without determining whether the services are truly beneficial to the patient, thus leading to higher costs, said Bennett

Wyden and Bennett both decried the prevailing lack of health care data.

"The fact is, you can find out a lot more about washing machines today than you can about making your purchases in the health care arena," Wyden said.

Wyden and Bennett are co-sponsors of the Healthy Americans Act, S. 391 (at the THOMAS Web site, type "S. 391" in the search box after selecting "Bill Number"). The legislation, in part, promotes universal health coverage by requiring adults without insurance to enroll themselves and their children in private insurance plans offered under the bill.

At the same time, the legislation relies on individual choices, market incentives and reforms to improve health care access and reduce costs while making the delivery system more efficient.

Bennett said the current employer-based health insurance system is "simply doomed over time" by the working patterns of the American wage earner. The concept of employer-based coverage dates back to World War II when employees typically worked for one or two employers throughout their working lives. In today's world, it is not unusual for someone to change jobs multiple times during their working life, making the employer-based system obsolete, according to Bennett.

"From the time I was 20 until the time I was 50, I changed jobs 17 times -- I couldn't hold a job," Bennett said, provoking laughter from those who attended the forum. "That meant there were that many holes in my health care coverage."

Wyden and Bennett agreed that the prospects for health care reform are positive in the current Congress.

"Thirteen to 14 years ago, during the Clinton years, the business community said, 'We cannot afford health care reform,'" said Wyden. "Now the business community is saying, 'We cannot afford what we've got.'"