Panel discusses health care reform

On Tuesday, in Charles Commons, the College Democrats along with the College Republicans, JHU Politik and the Public Health Student Forum hosted a panel on Health Care Reform featuring Professors Adam Sheingate, Donald Steinwachs, and Bradly Herring.

The panel discussed the various proposals before Congress, the current problems with health care in the United States and the chances of meaningful reform in the near future. It was conducted in a question and answer format, with students posing an array of questions to the professors.?

Steinwachs stated that he was for the most part focused on transformations and changes in the methods of delivering health care and quality.

Sheingate focused on political factors shaping health care policy.

Herring was focused on the economic aspects of the issue, since he served as an economic advisor to the Bush White House from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2007.

One student inquired about the current status of health care bills in congress and what would happen next.

"The House is a little further along than the Senate," Herring said.

He explained that three house committees came up with a bill in August, but did not move forward with it because they wanted to see what would happen in the Senate first. The House bill is considered more liberal than the Senate bill.

"Now it's at a stage where they are merging the House version and the Senate Finance version to come up with a final bill...initially there was hope that this would all come together by the end of the year...but I think that is very, very unlikely."

When asked how much the House bill mattered to the Senate, Sheingate explained that the House bill is probably intended to act as a "leftward pull on the debate...what we'll see is that the Democrats will come together to try and craft something that will pass the Senate."

Sheingate also addressed the question of a public healthcare plan. He pointed out the fact that a public plan does exist for certain segments of the population, such as the Medicare program for people over 65, although many people seem unaware of this fact.

He used this as an example to explain the current structure of health care in the U.S., and how that structure is a challenge to change.

"We currently have this system that mixes public and private health care," he said. "It's hard to imagine...how you could completely reconfigure the entire health care system and replace it with a single payer [public] system."

Steinwachs also weighed in on the issue, mentioning some economic concerns of a public option.

"I think the concern many Republicans and conservative Democrats have about the public plan is that over time the public plan might be able to drive out . . . the for-profit plans," he said.

In conclusion, Herring said "It is going to be good that we are going to cover a sizable fraction of the uninsured . . . as a result of this reform . . . but I do have concerns about the fact that we have a very fragmented health care system and we're not doing anything to simplify it or streamline it."

"Obama has said if you like your coverage you can keep it . . . in large part I think that's unfortunate because the current coverage people have . . . is not a good system."

Sheingate chose to remind the audience that money was not the only thing at stake in the health care debate.

"In addition to being an economic issue it is a moral issue. Currently the system of health care we have is immoral," he said.

Students for the most part reacted positively to the panel.

"I thought it was great," junior Pat Mascia said. "I thought they provided a lot of different opinions and put their personal opionions aside and answered the questions."

Sophomore Clifton Jenkins-Houk also felt he benefited from the event.

"It's an interesting look at the American conundrum . . . from a number of very valid and important perspectives," he said.

"I learned a lot of information, especially from the government point of view," fellow sophomore Faradia Kernizen said.

Daniel Barash, President of the Hopkins Democrats, said the event was part of an effort by the hosting organizations to educate Hopkins students about important issues.

"Our priority is to educate the Hopkins community," he said. "So we think that this is the biggest issue in domestic policy right now."

He added that the panel might have special relevance to Hopkins students because so many plan on entering health care as a career.

"We have a lot of people coming from different positions. We have people concerned with the political issues...and we have a lot of pre-meds who are thinking about how this might affect them and their careers."