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Romney Advisor Offers Views on Healthcare Policy
Michael Leavitt, the former Utah governor and federal government official tapped by Mitt Romney to head his healthcare transition team, has been under conservative fire for embracing some aspects of the Affordable Care Act such as health insurance exchanges.
But speaking at the closing session of the Third National ACO Summit in Washington, D.C., last week, Leavitt was quick to align himself with the free market powers of the healthcare system. Along the way he provided some insight into how a Romney administration might tackle healthcare reform.
Leavitt said the engine that is driving healthcare reform now isn't the Affordable Care Act, the upcoming Supreme Court decision, or even the outcome of the 2012 election. "The real driver is what I call global economic dispassion—the economic forces that are making this an absolute imperative. Health reform has become economic reform."
To meet this global economic dispassion "we have to be able to move more quickly," said Levitt.
He said that when people think about the American healthcare system they talk about "a race car that can go 200 miles an hour" but government is "still building a go-cart."
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Todd (6/13/2012 at 4:40 PM)
CMS would do well to innovate by allowing Medicare to pay for out-of-country care by incenting international medical tourism. Why not? US hospitals are already losing money on Medicare anyway.
Karl S Davidson (6/13/2012 at 1:57 PM)
Health reform become"??..really. Health reform has been the initial beginning point for economic reform since day one, no thanks to the Republicans. Accounting for more than a third of our economy, it consumes needed capital from every other segment of (private and public) our whole economy. Health Reform barely got done. The "bid'nes" community and career politicians have clearly established themselves as incompetent and hopelessly lost as far as developing any humane program meant to serve the people on a personal level. We don't have a 200 mph race car, but did have a go-cart. The only ones working on it were Republicans and several stray "bluedogs". It's still a sad day, as the key professionals that should be reforming Health Care have been excluded and even prevented from being active in any role; by simple greed and corruption of both parties. AND, yes, I am a rocket scientist, and a Health Care Consultant.