WASHINGTON – The National Coalition on Benefits, representing more than 185 employers, associations and organizations, has urged Congress to make sure any health reform bill includes measures to protect the long-term fiscal outlook of the nation as well as improve quality and value in care.
In a Wednesday letter to Reps. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), the NCB said the current House healthcare reform bill (H.R. 3200) under consideration "needs fundamental changes" to make healthcare more affordable and reliable.
"We oppose rushing a seriously flawed bill through the House of Representatives," the letter said.
Praising the financially conservative group of Congressional Democrats known as the "Blue Dogs" along with the New Democrat Coalition, the NCB urged Congress to take time to enact legislation that will sustain economic recovery. "We oppose rushing a seriously flawed bill through the House of Representatives," they said in the letter.
As providers of health insurance for more than 170 million Americans, America's employers "are united with the members of Congress in both parties that understand ever-rising healthcare costs are threatening the viability of U.S. businesses and job security for millions of Americans," they wrote. The current House bill, known as the Tri-Committee bill, "will make many of the system's current problems even worse," they said.
The NCB said Congress can't achieve reforms unless it focuses on:
- Preserving the federal uniform ERISA framework and avoiding imposing burdensome new requirements to ERISA
- Payment reform that focuses on quality and outcomes, including realigning incentives to reward high quality, efficient health care, value-based purchasing, a value index, an innovation center for Medicare and Medicaid and other delivery system reforms
- Comparative effectiveness research that promotes knowledge about healthcare outcomes without resulting in rationing
- Expansion of Health IT and telemedicine
- Medical malpractice reform
- Guarding against cost-shifting from government programs to the private sector
- Avoiding taxes and other revenue-raisers that will stifle job creation
The letter comes as Congressional leaders are pushing to have a bill ready before the August recess. President Barack Obama has been on a campaign curcuit emphasizing how his reform plan will contain costs in the short- and long-term, promote the use of healthcare IT and emphasize realignment of incentives to award quality over quantity of care.
Congress invested more than $1 billion toward comparative effectiveness research in the recently passed economic recovery bill, with a plan to use it as a major building block for reform.
