CEOs unite for health care By: Chris Frates May 7, 2007 10:40 PM EST
Health care reformers scored a victory Monday when 35 chief executives announced a major lobbying coalition designed to push for universal coverage in a market-based system.
The Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform was launched as a way for business leaders to influence the debate on the state and federal levels.
The group is advocating for a market-based solution that covers everyone, gives incentives for receiving preventive care and provides subsidies to low-income people.
"Unlike other coalitions, which in my view played defense, this coalition has policy principles and a plan to play offense," Steve Burd, the chief executive of Safeway and chairman of CAHR, told Politico.
Burd would not say how much the organization will raise or spend or what its lobbying plans are beyond building the coalition, but it has hired the lobby shop Quinn Gillespie & Associates.
"We're confident that we have enough resources to fund the work that's needed," Burd said.
The proactive and organized response is a marked change from where the business community was during the health care reform debate under President Bill Clinton in the early ‘90s, said Karen Davenport, director of health policy at the Center for American Progress.
"It shows a higher level of engagement. I think [business leaders are] an essential ingredient in solving this problem," Davenport said.
The difference between now and then, coalition members said, is that the increased cost of health care cost is on track to hurt American businesses and workers competing in the global economy. By 2015, health care costs will constitute 22 percent of the nation's gross domestic product or $41 trillion.
"The rate of health care increases cannot come continue," Cigna CEO H. Edward Hanway told Politico. The difference between this coalition and the others, he said, is the "willingness of the CEOs to commit their own time and energy."
The CEOs' involvement helps build the issue's momentum, Davenport said.
"They're their own best spokesmen on this," she said. "They can bring in economists or policy wonks, but it's far more powerful to have CEOs talk about it. That gives it validity a voice of authenticity. They're talking about their real experience."
Burd highlighted Safeway's experience in trying to control health care costs. The company eliminated co-pays for preventative care like annual physicals, mammograms, colonoscopies and well-baby care. Employees who take advantage of the program see a reduction in their premiums. The program, Burd said, has saved Safeway 15 percent per capita.
"We stumbled upon the Holy Grail of how to solve the problem from the cost side," he said. "We think we can mimic that for the nation."
But without reform, there's only so much individual CEOs can do to cut costs, which likely has them frustrated, Davenport said. "I'm sure for CEOs that is an unusual experience."
Davenport's progressive think tank is also part of a coalition, Better Health Care Together, which boasts Wal-Mart and Service Employees International Union as members. The coalition is holding a summit in New York Tuesday where it will announce new members. The more people pushing the issue, she said, the better