13 Health Leaders Respond to Obama's State of the Union Address

Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media, January 28, 2010

Matthew Haddad
President and CEO
Medversant Technologies LLC
"During the President's relatively brief comments on healthcare reform, he joked that taking on this issue certainly wasn't good politics. Yet his commitment to overhaul healthcare was a key to his victory last November.

"Today, emphasizing job growth and fixing the economy is better politics. However, it is also the right message as the nation's deficit continues to grow, putting at risk our international credit standing and national security. Hopefully, the President's muted healthcare reform comments don't signal an end to healthcare reform, it is certainly needed.

"But perhaps it signals a willingness on the part of Democrats to loosen their grip on the so called ‘public option' banner. This would make good sense politically and in the end produce better results for most Americans.

"Instead of attempting to initiate a whole new health payment vehicle, we can look at existing programs to reform. The Social Security Act of 1965, created Medicare and Medicaid for the purpose of providing federal health insurance for the elderly and poor.

"There have been a multitude of adjustments to these programs that have reflected the policy goals of each prevailing administration. Instead of erecting a new complex payment organization, which comes with the unsettling concept of government competing with free enterprise, we should take stock of what we have already built.

"We can plug some of the coverage holes in Medicare and Medicaid. We can provide incentives and disincentives to encourage administrative efficiency, especially for health plans administering public programs. Let's create mandatory individual set asides for healthcare expenditures that build over an individual's lifetime to pay for out of pocket costs on a pre tax basis."

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Robert Karch
Director
Health Promotion Management
Chair
Health and Fitness
American University
"I was disappointed … in the lack of specific comments related to healthcare. More specifically, given all the attention that has been focused on that topic, I was surprised that the President did not devote more time and include more specific actions that could be taken that would improve the current conditions.

"For example, while the President proposed a series of tax breaks for specific actions related to such things as manufacturing, hiring new employees, and increasing exports, he could have also included tax incentives for companies to provide health enhancing activities and services for workers.

"Better yet why not provide large financial incentives for employers that fund effective ‘never start smoking' programs for our youth? For as it is now, in excess of 80% of all adult smokers were addicted to smoking before their 18th birthday—some three years before they could legally smoke."

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Vic Lazzaro
CEO
BridgeHealth Medical, Inc.
"Clearly healthcare was not the focus of his speech. However, he also made clear he has not abandoned reform, perhaps reprioritized it and perhaps recognized that Americans tend not to favor something revolutionary, but more evolutionary.

"The challenge is huge and may be even bigger than at the start as he will likely need to build a broader base of support on both sides of the aisle. The basic principles of medical travel of quality, price, access, and a positive patient experience complement in fact might be the basis for a reset on the needs and problems that still need to be addressed in our healthcare system.

"There are steps that can be taken that might have broad support and therefore be realized in legislation."

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Cheryl Clark is a senior editor and California correspondent for HealthLeaders Media Online. She can be reached at cclark@healthleadersmedia.com. Follow Cheryl Clark on Twitter.

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