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Akron Beacon Journal...
Lost
in the exchange
July 18, 2011
Listen
to Gov. John Kasich and his
lieutenant, Mary Taylor, on Ohio’s direction with health care, and you
will
appreciate the confusion when rigid ideology trumps sound policy.
Last
week, the governor visited
Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He was so impressed with the research
and
collaboration among children’s hospitals, he pledged $2 million (source
unidentified) to promote a care coordination program by pediatric
hospitals. A
key element of Medicaid reform that Kasich wisely pushed in the state’s
new
two-year budget, the accountable care concept happens also to be one of
the
tools in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to
improve the
quality of health care and lower costs.
For
Republicans, the fatal flaw for
the concept is the federal legislation bears President Obama’s imprint.
Kasich’s full-throated support for the idea thus has been refreshing.
To hear
the governor say it, he is not above embracing a good idea when he sees
it, no
matter the source.
Which
goes for health insurance
exchanges as well, a cornerstone of federal health-care reform. The
plan is for
states to create their own markets where individuals who otherwise
would have
no coverage can shop for competitively priced plans offered by private
insurance companies. As has been pointed out frequently, the idea for
the
exchange originated with conservatives.
Kasich
was quoted last week as saying:
“I think an [insurance] exchange is a good idea as well. You want to
let people
have an opportunity to shop for the best programs and policies.”
But
you would be mistaken if you
thought that clarified the Kasich administration’s position on the need
for the
insurance exchanges in Ohio. Of late, Lt. Gov. Taylor has been sharing
her
strong doubts, arguing the health insurance market is robust in Ohio as
it is,
signaling the administration may opt not to set up an exchange.
Besides
the contradiction in the
executive office, the disconcerting aspect of Taylor’s stance is that
it fails
utterly to understand the core problem the exchanges address: the
prohibitive
cost of the individual insurance market, which has deprived tens of
thousands
of Ohioans of essential coverage, among them the self-employed and
employees of
small businesses that do not offer coverage.
Read
it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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