Ask the Expert Karen Davenport on Obama’s Speech to Congress Regarding Health Care Reform

What new issues did President Obama raise in his health reform speech?

In last night’s speech, President Obama took his original campaign plan for reforming the health care system and moved it forward. He pulled new ideas into it; he particularly emphasized that there should be shared responsibility for making sure that everybody has health care coverage, which means that the government, individuals, and employers all have a role to play in making sure that everyone has coverage.

He also adopted an idea that Senator McCain advanced in last year’s campaign, particularly, around people with chronic conditions. So he suggested that state-based high-risk pools be expanded, particularly until health care reform is fully implemented so that people with chronic conditions have a place to go where they can get coverage.

He also expanded on strategies for ensuring that everybody has a choice of affordable, high-quality health insurance, and that there is enough competition in the health insurance market so that health care costs can be controlled. He continues to support a public health insurance option but he also noted that a cooperative public-private health insurance plan might be able to reach the same goals.

He embraced an idea advanced by the Center for American Progress that there be a trigger, which he referred to as a “deficit trigger,” that makes sure that as health care reform is implemented, if costs are higher than expected, that those costs will be covered.

Will the speech help move the debate forward?

Even before he gave the speech, it helped moved the debate forward. We saw the Senate Finance Committee, yesterday, announce that they would be moving towards mark-up of a health care reform bill the week of September 21st. This is the fifth and final committee that has jurisdiction over health care reform, and they have been stuck in negotiations through most of the summer. And with the pressure of the President’s speech, we’re starting to see movement in that committee, and also in the House as a whole as they move towards a vote on a bill in that body as well.

What should we expect in the weeks to come?

In the next couple weeks we’ll see the Senate Finance Committee consider legislation, and then the health reform bills will move on to a vote in the full Senate and in the full House, and then the amendment process that is part of that debate.