Senators issue health reform policy options

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) jointed issued a 52-page document Tuesday laying out the options on the table for healthcare delivery system reform.

The release of the document, which spells out possible reform policies touching on matters such as how to pay doctors and hospitals to provide better, more efficient care, comes in advance of a closed-door “walkthrough” meeting on Wednesday, at which Democrats and Republicans on the Finance Committee will comment on Baucus’s proposals.

The Wednesday meeting should be the most harmonious of the three Baucus and Grassley have scheduled; the remaining two will take place next month. Next up is how to cover the uninsured, an always contentious subject that will almost definitely feature a partisan fight over whether to create a federal health insurance program. The final meeting will focus on how to finance the more than $1 trillion in new government spending health reform almost certainly will require.

The Finance Committee plans to mark up its healthcare bill in early to mid-June, as does the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the three House committees writing the lower chamber’s bill.

UPDATE: Baucus and Grassley put out a joint press release in conjunction with the policy paper. Here’s what they had to say:

“Everyone agrees that America’s health care system is broken,” said Baucus. “Over the past year, I’ve been talking to members of the health care community and listening to innovative ideas about how to improve quality in the way health care is delivered to patients. The policy options Senator Grassley and I are releasing today put some meat on the bones of those ideas to strengthen our discussion moving forward. But nothing is set in stone. I look forward to a robust dialogue with my colleagues on these ideas in the coming months, as we work together to build the comprehensive health reform this country needs.”

“We have escalating costs, inefficient delivery systems, and 47 million people who lack health coverage at some point during the year,” Grassley said. “We need to make significant improvements to our health care delivery system. And we need to do it a fiscally responsible way. Over the last year, the Finance Committee has held a series of hearings on health care reform and a two-day summit. We’ve heard many witnesses tell us what’s wrong with the system and how they believe health care delivery could be improved. Some health care providers deliver higher quality care at a lower cost. The options for delivery reform are meant to take the best ideas from people who are doing things well and apply them everywhere we can.”

–Jeffrey Young