US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse continues to express strong support for including a public option in the Democratic healthcare reform package. But the senator won't condition his support of healthcare reform on the inclusion of a public option.
That's one of the highlights from a healthcare-focused edition of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers with Whitehouse and his Senate colleague Jack Reed. (The show will be broadcast Sunday, at 5:30 am on Channel 12, and at 10 am on Fox 64.)
Whitehouse and I talked a bit more after this morning's taping. Edited excerpts:
Donnis: Can healthcare reform be successful if a public option isn't part of it?
Whitehouse: I think possibly it could be, but I think the likelihood of it being effective goes way down. And considering how important, indeed urgent, it is that we turn this healthcare system around before it wrecks our economy, I think we're taking reckless chances if we don't include a public option, so I'm a very strong supporter of it. Is it possible that we could solve the problem without it? I suppose hypothetically, but I think it would be a mistake.
Donnis: What, for you, would be the minimum standards of a succesful healthcare reform?
Whitehouse: The key things for me would be first, to force reforms on the insurance industry, so that there are no longer throwing people out or refusing to cover them, because they're sick; and to simplify their relationship with doctors and hospitals, so that they're not torturing doctors with, you know, "we're not paying for that, you have to get prior authorization." The amount of hassle that a doctor's office is put through dealing with the insurance industry is a huge drag on our healthcare system right now, and that has to be lightened up.
As I said, we need the public option. And then the delivery system reform needs to include a vibrant electronic health record for people, quality improvement in ways that will save money, prevention investments in ways that will save money, transparency, so that people understand which type of care is most effective for them, and changing the reimbursement system, so that doctors are paid for better outcomes, rather than just more procedures. And then finally, we got to cover everybody. A pretty broad recipe.
Donnis: Democrats seem on the defensive in responding to critics of reform. How will Democrats regain initiative on this issue?
Whitehouse: I think by nature the initiative will return as the bills continue to go forward. As you heard from the list of issues that I think are the key issues, this is a broad and complex agenda that Democrats are driving. For Republicans to come in as spoilers and yellers and naysayers is an easy short-term message, and we can't respond quickly, because it's more complicated than that.
But I think as the public begins to get accustomed to the debate, they'll understand that, frankly, they haven't been well-served by the yelling and the shouting and the misleading that the Republicans have done, that they have no constructive agenda whatsoever for a real national problem. And then I think it reverts kind of naturally to us, so I think we just need to keep doing what we're doing, and keep working on all of these issues, and get a bill that meets America's needs.
And then I think the Town Hall kind of spasm that we've had in this country will look like a brief and odd moment in our history, but people will be satisfied and pleased that the coverage problems that they've had are solved.
