Congress, president likely to experience health care gridlock

By Katy Armstrong

For The Daily

Avoiding gridlock on health care issues will be a major challenge after the new president and Congress take office in January, Sociology Prof. Emeritus Max Heirich said Friday at a panel discussion among health care and public policy experts.

With neither Vice President Al Gore or Texas Gov. George W. Bush receiving an overwhelming mandate on their health care policy proposals, coupled with the nearly even split along party lines in Congress Heirich said it is important to look to areas for negotiation.

The panel, titled "Prospects for Health Policy Legislation: The New Congress and New White House," highlighted health care reform issues and considered the potential for improvement in this time of budget surpluses.

Moderator Marilynn Rosenthal, a health policy professor at the University's Dearborn campus, welcomed the crowd of about 100 faculty and students. She introduced keynote speakers Chris Jennings, deputy assistant to President Clinton for health care policy, and Shawn Coughlin, senior vice president at a Republican consulting company, Steelman Health Strategies.

Coughlin said Bush has a "new outlook, new priorities" and as being willing to work on a bipartisan basis, while the Democrats have an "our way or the highway" attitude toward creation of a patients' bill of rights. The next president must "try to re-establish some level of trust across the aisle," he said.

Jennings, meanwhile, countered Coughlin's statement that Democrats prefer to address health care issues in the public sector rather than privately.

"Democrats want to get it done," Jennings said.

Coughlin said Democrats have a historic advantage of being concerned with health care but Republicans are increasing their focus on health issues. He said that unlike Democrats, Republicans do not have a unified approach on the role government should play in health care.

Coughlin summarized by saying he saw the most room for action in providing coverage for the uninsured, as Democrats and Republicans agree in principle on that issue.

Regarding Medicare and prescription drug coverage for seniors, Coughlin said, "I believe the issue is ripe, I don't believe the politics are yet."

Offering a more optimistic perspective from the Democratic side, Jennings opened his speech by holding up a glass of water and declaring, "I'm a half-full kind of guy."

Jennings urged that there is a great opportunity for achievement in Congress and suggested that members of both parties feel pressure to project an image of bipartisanship to avoid being viewed as a roadblock to progress.

The event was sponsored by the FORUM on Health Policy, a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary, educational program of the University Health System's Program in Society and Medicine.

"I thought it was extraordinary ... it was one of the most interesting and informative forums we've had," said Rosenthal, the event coordinator and director of FORUM on Health Policy.