Analysis: Doctors back Clinton plan
Jim Swanson May 24th, 2007 - 11:40 pmBy ROSALIE WESTENSKOW
UPI Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) — Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., presented a seven-part plan Thursday aimed at lowering healthcare costs — a roadmap that several doctors deemed encouraging.
The proposal focuses solely on cutting costs, which Clinton identified as one of three areas critical to healthcare reform.
Addressing students and faculty at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, Clinton said she would outline at a later time the other two key components of her reform agenda, improving quality and covering the uninsured.
Clinton acknowledged her first rocky encounter with healthcare reform during her tenure as first lady but said she won’t make the same mistakes this time around.
“I have tangled with this issue before, and I’ve got the scars to show for it, but I learned some valuable lessons from that experience,” Clinton told attendees. “One is that we can’t achieve reform without the participation and commitment of healthcare providers, employers, employees and other citizens who pay for, depend upon and actually deliver healthcare services.”
Public attitudes have shifted as well, with healthcare emerging as one of the paramount issues of the day and one that affects every American — a fact Clinton is banking on to help build support for her plan.
“I think we finally have a recognition (of healthcare problems),” she said. “Everyone sees there is an economic imperative to rein in cost, there is a moral imperative to extend coverage to all Americans and there is a practical necessity to promote wellness and prevent illness wherever possible.”
The senator laid out seven steps to mitigate costs: increase disease prevention, convert from paper to electronic medical records, provide comprehensive care for chronically ill patients, eliminate insurance discrimination, create a “best practices” institute, drive down prices for prescription drugs and reform medical malpractice.
All together, Clinton estimates her plan would lower national healthcare spending by $120 billion, or $2,200 per family.
Physicians at the event expressed enthusiasm for the plan.
“Senator Clinton is right on the money, so to speak, of identifying waste in the system,” Richard Becker, CEO of the George Washington University Hospital, told United Press International. “Our resources are not used efficiently.”
Unnecessary treatment riddles the system and often causes more harm than good, Clinton said, pointing to a California-based study that found one in every five X-rays and lab tests were performed simply because earlier results were unavailable.
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