Bill aims for public to drive health reform

Legislation sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden and Orrin Hatch would mandate forums to assess public opinion on how the U.S. health care system should work.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. Dec. 9, 2002.

Washington -- The latest news about the condition of the nation's health system has been anything but good.

The number of uninsured Americans grew to 41.2 million last year. Health insurance premium increases are again in the double digits. And several former Dept. of Health and Human Services secretaries, who gathered recently to tape a television show for PBS, reportedly described the American health care system as "a mess."

Yet Congress has been shy of big ideas for reform since the failure of President Clinton's plan in 1994.

Now, two senators have come up with a concept they say would introduce fresh ideas and opinions from outside of Washington.

The Health Care That Works for All Americans Act promises to let the public "jump-start health reform by stating their priorities from the outset, rather than being treated as an afterthought," Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) told the Senate when he introduced the bill in October.

Co-sponsor Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) said "the legislation ... will stimulate fruitful discussion and debate on how we can really effect improvements to our nation's health care system -- improvements that can be accepted at all levels, from communities on up to the federal government."

AMNews last month asked Wyden some questions about the proposed bill.

Q: What is the goal of the legislation?

A: It's to create a health care system that works for all Americans. The fact is that essentially the same thing has been tried for 57 years, going back to Harry Truman's efforts in 1945. What happens is a politician writes a bill in Washington, D.C.; interest groups attack it; the public is understandably confused; and then nothing happens. [...]