Obama: ‘Health Care Reform Will Not Wait Another Year’

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, in a near-hour-long
address to members of Congress and the American people Tuesday
night, pledged health care reform within the year.

“The cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and
the conscience of our nation long enough,” he said during a speech
that also took point-blank aim at the economic crisis, education
and energy. “So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot
wait, it must not wait and it will not wait another year.”

Obama said he has already scheduled a summit meeting next week
on health care, “bringing together businesses and workers, doctors
and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans.”

The president is moving ahead even though he is without a
Department of Health and Human Services secretary. Obama’s pick for
the job, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.,
withdrew as
the nominee following admission that he had failed to pay back
taxes. Daschle, favored among HME stakeholders because of his
knowledge of the industry, was to have been the administration’s
key player in health care reform.

In his speech, Obama noted the urgency to do something
immediately about what he called “the crushing cost of health
care.”

“This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30
seconds,’ he said. “By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5
million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years,
premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of
these years, one million more Americans have lost their health
insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses
close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it’s one
of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.”

That last fact was underscored earlier Tuesday by CMS’ release
of national health care spending, expected to come in at $2.4
trillion for 2008 and increase by 3.5 percent in 2009 to take
up 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

Already, Obama noted, Congress has expanded the
State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, to provide
health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents
work full time. He also plans to invest in electronic health
records and new technology to “reduce errors, bring down costs,
ensure privacy and save lives.”

As well, he said, a new effort will be launched to seek a cure
for cancer “in our time.” And preventive care will claim a large
investment “because that is one of the best ways to keep our people
healthy and our costs under control.”

In his effort to cut the $11 trillion deficit in half by the end
of his first term, Obama vowed, among other things, to “root out
the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn’t
make our seniors any healthier.”

What all this means for the HME industry is yet to be seen.

“Obama’s speech did not get into a lot of health reform
specifics, and his administration may not drill down to HME issues
for some time,” said Michael Reinemer, vice president,
communications and policy, for the American Association
for Homecare. “But his administration’s emphasis on pragmatism
— finding solutions that work — and accountability are
noteworthy.

“Home care faces an imminent threat from restarting the
[competitive] bidding program plus threats of further and deeper
cuts to oxygen therapy,” Reinemer continued. “So we have to
continue to underscore our numerous concerns to Congress and the
Obama administration and work toward solutions that work.”

Reinemer added that AAHomecare’s 13-point
anti-fraud plan dovetails with Obama’s call to eliminate fraud
and abuse in Medicare. “That will be one our key messages to
policymakers and the media this week,” he said.

Other stakeholders are also cautiously optimistic that this
administration will at least be more open to dialog about one major
concern: competitive bidding.

“The fact that we were able to get an extension in the effective
date of the [competitive bidding interim final rule] is a positive
sign that the new administration really does want to take a very
comprehensive look at the program to determine whether they want to
move forward in this direction or go in a different direction
… A lot has changed since the rule was published, and I’m
optimistic we can work with the new administration to find a way to
stop competitive bidding,” Pride Mobility Products‘ Seth Johnson, vice
president of government affairs, told HomeCare Monday last
week (see ‘No
Ifs, Ands or Buts’ on Competitive Bidding, Feb. 23).

Obama’s pledge of a health care reform bill within the year also
could be a good sign for HME stakeholders looking for a vehicle to
carry a repeal of the 36-month oxygen cap.

In an attempt to gain more immediate relief on that issue,
providers and manufacturers have lobbied
House legislators to sign on to a letter authored by Reps. Tom
Price, R-Ga.; Mike Ross, D-Ark.; Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo.; and Heath
Shuler, D-N.C., urging CMS to provide appropriate payments for home
oxygen throughout the patient’s medical need. As of the deadline
Monday, 116 legislators had signed the letter.

A companion Senate letter is also in the works.

Read the President’s speech or watch the address on the White House’s Web
site.