Groups to Carper: Be clear on reform
Source: The News Journal
By Ginger Gibson
August 29, 2009
A group of liberal advocacy groups has called on Sen. Tom Carper to be clear about his stance on health care reform, particularly to sign a pledge to support the private option.
Health Care for America NOW plans to run television ads encouraging Delaware residents to call Carper and urge him to sign on to a health care reform plan. Their campaign targets Carper and seven other U.S. senators they say remain on the fence about health care reform.
But Carper said criticisms are misplaced. He said he is pushing for a program that would give millions of Americans access to the same type of program that federal employees use.
The system, that Carper calls a health care exchange, would create large buying groups that purchase health insurance from private companies but get a lower price by buying in bulk.
Darlene Battle, Delaware ACORN director and the state coordinator for Health Care for America NOW, said their group has urged Carper to support a public option that would ensure people who lose their jobs or can't afford private insurance are covered.
Battle said their organization asked Carper to sign a pledge to support health care reform, including several specific tenets and that he had refused. She said their organization will be satisfied with Carper's position when he signs the pledge.
Carper said he supports comprehensive reform and that Congress should look at models like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic when determining how to best make changes.
He said a group purchasing plan would be identical to the insurance that federal employees, including himself, have access to. Republican opposition to the group buying option have made it difficult to just open the federal program up to all citizens, Carper said, so he's pushing creating an identical system.
Battle said the notion of a group purchasing will not provide the same assurance of coverage that a public option would.
"That is not going to work, that works if you're in a small setting and everyone buys into it," Battle said.
Carper said he also supports creating regional buying groups. For example, he said Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey could function as one buying group that is large enough to drive down prices but small enough to take into account regional needs.
But Battle said in Delaware there are only two large insurance companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Coventry, so there wouldn't be enough competition to drive down prices.
Sen. Ted KAUFMAN is in agreement with Battle about the lack of competition, pointing out that in both rural and urban areas of the country there are only one or two health care options.
"A central goal to reform is finding a way to get healthcare costs under control. We have to bend the long-term cost curve down, or Americans will soon be unable to afford health insurance," KAUFMAN said. "A public option - where the consumer has the opportunity to keep their current insurance or choose the public option, if no competitor is available - gives Americans a greater range of choices, makes the health care market more competitive, and keeps insurance companies honest."
Rep. Mike Castle has said he opposes a public option, and instead supports changes like tort reform or uniform regulations to increase competition across state lines.
Carper proposes allowing a "fall back" public option that would only kick into effect when one region didn't have enough competition. He said a similar set up is in place with the federal prescription drug program for seniors with a fall back public option, but there has been such a large amount of competition, the public option is unused.
He said the prescription drug program is the perfect model to be used when considering developing health care reform since it has provided access to medication, been under budget every year since it was created and 85 percent of participants indicate they are pleased with the program.
