Kaiser Permanente’s Chief Optimistic About Health Overhaul Effort
George Halvorson, the chief executive of one of the nation’s most respected health care systems, Kaiser Permanente, says he is hopeful that all the sausage-making in Washington will succeed in squeezing out a law.
“I’m optimistic because, A, we need reform and, B, the president needs the bill,” Mr. Halvorson said in an interview Tuesday.
“The political downside if a bill doesn’t pass is just too great,” said Mr. Halvorson, who was an informal adviser on efforts under the Clinton administration to overhaul health care. Back then, he says, there was not the same urgency among policy makers to make sure legislation passed.
Kaiser Permanente, the big H.M.O.-style nonprofit health plan in California, is often held up as a model for a system that provides high-quality patient care at reasonable cost.
Despite his organization’s focus, Mr. Halvorson said he was not concerned about the current emphasis in Washington to expand insurance coverage rather than improve patient care. Congress needs to tackle both issues — universal coverage and better care — he said, but lawmakers need to expand coverage first.
“You can’t fix care first and then insure everybody,” he said.
Like all health plans, Kaiser would benefit from an influx of new customers, of course. But Mr. Halvorson says he is just as concerned about the prospects of the nation improving its medical care while saving money.
After passing a bill to give more people insurance, he said, Congress should move immediately to pass legislation aimed at improving how doctors and hospitals deliver care. “Two very quick swings, and the same at-bat,” he said.
Still, Mr. Halvorson, who offers his own thoughts on fixing the system in his book, “Health Care Will Not Reform Itself,” also warned against Washington’s trying to micromanage the nation’s medical care.
Instead, he said, lawmakers should support efforts to reward improvements in care for a handful of chronic conditions like asthma and heart failure, which affect millions of people and are some of the highest contributors to the nation’s health care bill. Tracking the care of those patients would be a good start, he said. “You don’t have to fix a lot of things.”
