WASHINGTON - Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told the CHA Board of Trustees that health care reform is possible in the next administration, but it will require persistent advocacy and a broad-based coalition.
Speaking to the board April 11 at its quarterly meeting, Wyden said that the principles in CHA's "Our Vision for U.S. Health Care" closely match the Healthy Americans Act, his proposed legislation to significantly expand access to affordable, quality health care. The CHA vision document sets out the ministry's values-based criteria for assessing health reform initiatives.
"You have stated so well in your principles what we want to do in the Healthy Americans Act," Wyden said.
He said that the legislation would provide a core package of benefits and a choice in where people get their health care. It would break the link between employment and insurance to make health care portable from job to job, promote personal responsibility and preventative medicine and reform the insurance market so that insurers are forced to compete on price, benefits and quality.
Wyden said the Healthy Americans Act has strong bipartisan support and he is actively lobbying to build on that base and use it as a launching pad for reform.
"The next president takes office in January," Wyden said. "He or she will have their hands full, and it will be easy to put off the health care issue. If we can go to the next president with a strong piece of legislation, it would allow the issue to move early next year."
Wyden thanked CHA board members for their leadership on health care reform and said he appreciates the work being done by the Catholic health ministry.
CHA and the ministry were active participants in the Citizens' Health Care Working Group, which Wyden created in 2003 to solicit public opinion on health care reform. The group submitted recommendations to President Bush in 2006, but Wyden acknowledged that the public had little expectation that the federal government would enact meaningful reform in the short term.
Health reform advocates recognize that it will take effort to restore faith that the federal government can bring about positive change in the health system and to build the broad-based coalitions necessary to advance the cause of health reform.
CHA's April board meeting is held in Washington and focuses on public policy. Board members also heard from Bob Greenstein from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies, a polling firm.