Health Care Reform Update

Continuing our updates on health care reform, President Obama extended an olive branch of sorts to Republicans a few days ago when he suggested 4 of their ideas be included in health care reform legislation. These Republican proposals Obama is willing to accept include (but are not limited to) improving programs to defeat fraud, waste and abuse in health care plans sponsored by the government and examining ways to increase reimbursement for catering to Medicaid patients. And the Republican ideas he would include in his legislation are:

• expanding health savings accounts
• increasing funding to states by $50 million for demonstrations of alternatives to resolving medical malpractice disputes, including health courts
• hiring medical professionals to conduct covert investigations of health care providers receiving reimbursements from Medicare, Medicaid, etc. in an effort to be rid of fraud, waste and abuse in health care delivery
• considering an increase in Medicaid reimbursements to doctors

However, one concept Obama is against is piecemeal reform, which was proposed by Republicans last Thursday.

Obama also backed up his decision to reduce the cost of the Medicare Advantage compared to Medicare fee-for-service programs in a letter to the Republican congressional leadership.

How do you feel about health care reform?