The Bottom Line on Health Care

By Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

 

The old saying, "If you don't like the weather in Chicago, just wait five minutes and it will change," is now applicable to health care policy. If you don't like the latest proposal from the president, Congress, or any number of special interest groups, just wait a few minutes and another one will pop up. Mandated universal health care, new tax incentives, and everything in between has been offered as a cure for skyrocketing health care costs and 47 million uninsured Americans.

 

The U.S. Chamber is a central player in the health care debate. We have backed specific proposals that we think will help, such as improving health savings accounts, creating small business health plans, curbing frivolous medical liability lawsuits, and encouraging the use of technology to improve care and reduce costs.

 

We judge every proposal on three criteria: (1) Does it strengthen the successful employer-provided system that currently insures 174 million people, or does it begin to weaken and dismantle it? (2) Does it employ market-based approaches that allow for flexibility and innovation, or is it a one-size-fits-all mandate that will do more harm than good? and (3) Does it make sense, is it cost effective, and does it have a reasonable chance of succeeding?

 

Forging consensus on health care solutions and mustering the political will to implement them is challenging. But it helps when you have a prism from which you can separate the good from the bad. Whatever changes our health care system undergoes, the Chamber will fight to ensure that the private sector-not the government-remains in control.