Obama Graded On Health Lessons Learned From Clintons

It's one of life's great lessons: out of pain can come change. The health overhaul effort has been nothing if not painful, just like the Clintons' failed health overhaul effort back in '93-'94.

The folks at the non-profit, non-partisan Alliance for Health Reform are fascinated by the historical aspects of health reform, and they've been tracking the effects of the lessons learned from the Clinton days. A couple of years ago they asked eight folks who had been involved in one way or another what a new health reform-minded president should think about.

Their experts came up with nine lessons. Among them: Move quick. Involve Congress from the beginning (something the Clinton administration infamously did not do). Compromise. Anticipate pushback. And once there's legislation, use an easy path through Congress — reconciliation.

 

So what kind of students are the health experts in Obama's adminstration? The Alliance for Health Reform went back to some of their original experts, and others, for a March 2010 scorecard.

The administration so far has come out pretty well, given the circumstances. For starters, the experts gave the White House credit for trying to move quickly. But as with President Clinton, something got in the way — the economy.

On involving Congress, Ed Howard, the head of the Alliance for Health Reform, notes that some people say the Obama administration "learned this lesson too well." But he says, that's easy to say while looking in the rearview mirror.

Christine Ferguson, the top health policy staffer for Republican Sen. John Chafee of Rhode Island back in the early 1990s, gives the current administration credit for getting bills passed in both the House and Senate. "That is the farthest any one has been able to move comprehensive health care legislation since the 1960s," she notes.

As for pushback, Clinton health policy guru Chris Jennings told the Alliance for Health Reform that you've got to do more than just expect it, you have to fight it differently. His advice: use doctors and nurses and patient advocacy groups to counter political opposition, given that neither Democratic nor Republican politicians are particularly trusted nowadays.

So what's the final grade on this test? We'll all know in about a week.