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Featured blog post: Reform: quality, cost, and access...to what?

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, September 29, 2009

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I have been extremely interested in watching the debate on health ______ reform. I intentionally did not fill in the blank because this has become a bit of a moving target. Of course, this debate began as a discussion on healthcare reform. But somewhere along the line, someone changed the terminology. Now, we no longer hear President Obama discuss healthcare reform, but health insurance reform. I am perfectly okay with this term because I believe it more accurately depicts what the current proposals have become.

Most would agree that early on in the reform debate, three main issues were identified as being central to any meaningful reform—quality, cost, and access. The current bills under consideration in both the House and the Senate contain some elements of all three. However, they all place heavy emphasis on access and do precious little to address quality and almost nothing to address cost (except increase the cost, but that is another blog post). But these bills also beg the question: Access to what? Access to healthcare or access to health insurance? Clearly, if you study these bills, they are more focused on providing access to health insurance, and thus, the appropriate shift in the terminology by President Obama and others. . .Read more of this “Reform” blog post by Kirk Mathews, MBA, on HospitalistLeadership.com.

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