Great timing! Right after the passing of the health reform bill, our resident health policy expert will tell us the effect of the historic health reform bill on public health. The Healthy Turtle will be update live from this Passport event. Apologies for mispellings and bad grammar, as I'll be typing quickly.
Dr. Jack Meyer: joint appointment as Professor of the Practice in the School of Public Health and the School of Public Policy; principal with Health Management Associates (HMA) in the Washington, D.C. office; conducting health care research, policy analysis, and strategic planning for grant-making foundations, health industry leaders, and state and federal agencies. He can be reached at jmeyer@healthmanagement.com.
--- 12:28
He recommends the summary provided by the Kaiser Foundation to better understand the provisions of the new law.
We'll be covering three highlights:
1. New Coverage Provision
2. New Opportunities for Prevention and Wellness at the Community Level, Workforce Issues, Clinical Prevention, etc.
3. Delivery System and Payments for Improving Health Outcomes and Costs
Can't wait to learn the facts... He's actually read the whole bill!
--- 12:35
1. Coverage
$100 billion a year will go toward Medicaid. Discrimination isn't so at play in Medicaid eligibility anymore... This law addresses differences in eligibility from state to state, parent vs. non-parent, homelessness, etc.
The challenge for the public health community: now that more people are eligible, how do we get them to enroll?
Challenge #2: How do we mitigate health literacy barriers? How do we get these people to the hospitals? What if they speak a language other than English?
--- 12:43
If your income is around $40,000 a year, you'll get assistance in coverage. "This isn't just a poverty program," he said. This is also for the middle class.
There are some tough game-changing provisions that will be hard on insurance companies:
1. Insurance companies have to pay at least 80 percent in each premium dollar in actual benefits. (In other words, their profits can not exceed 20 percent.)
2. Executive compensation in health insurance industry may not exceed $500,000 per executive.
--- 12:49
There is an emphasis on personal responsibility in the bill, although there are steps worked into the bill to encourage us to be personally responsible.
--- 12:54
2. Prevention and Wellness
Establishes a council to coordinate at the national level to develop a national strategy to improve our health. Funded by $7 billion between now and 2015, and $2 billion a year after that. "Could it have been more? Absolutely," Meyers says. "but that's real money. That's a good start."
A lot of provisions on workforce. Increased funding for doctors in underserved areas, scholarship programs and $11 billion over five years for community health centers.
--- 1:05
3. Payment, delivery
Challenges: Addressing the needs with those with multiple issues and needs.
"We've got to control spending, not by rationing the care," but by navigating the needy, help them get access, do a much better job at figuring out how we evaluate new medical technology and target it to who needs it (not ration it).
There is an emphasis on personal responsibility in the bill, although there are steps worked into the bill to encourage us to be personally responsible.
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