Overview
At the launch of the Bipartisan Policy Center last year, BPC founders Senators Baker, Daschle, Dole, and Mitchell expressed a desire to work together on a specific policy project to exemplify their commitment to bipartisan action. Recognizing the current crisis in American health care as well as the political stalemate in the reform debate, they decided to make health care their signature issue.
The Leaders' Project on the State of American Health Care will, through targeted meetings and workshops involving top practitioners and experts, develop a framework to accelerate constructive discussion and implementation of policy solutions to the nation’s most pressing health care issues. The Leaders’ Project seeks to develop and promote policies that can attract bipartisan support from policymakers and lay the necessary foundation for providing all Americans access to quality, affordable health coverage. The project is guided by some of the country's leading health care experts and will create opportunities for practical dialogue and cooperative solutions on some of the key challenges facing the nation’s health care system.
BPC Leaders: A Strong Commitment to Health Care Reform
There is no lack of public discussion regarding our health care crisis. Absent, however, is a measured and substantive dialogue that transcends the clamor of special interests and partisan politics to provide the foundation of a comprehensive national dialogue. Senators Tom Daschle, Bob Dole, Howard Baker, and George Mitchell are uniquely qualified to develop a substantive strategy that can secure bipartisan support.
Howard Baker: Since departing the Senate in 1985, Senator Baker has served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and remains active in the organization’s efforts to reform the health care system. In his role at the Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, he continues to engage in the health care debate through partnerships with groups like Better Health Care Together.
Tom Daschle: Senator Daschle is the author of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, which proposes a path forward to improving the way health care is delivered in the United States. As Senate Majority Leader, he worked tirelessly to advance legislation to overhaul the nation’s health insurance system, improve health care delivery to Native Americans, and provide seniors with access to affordable prescription drugs.
Bob Dole: Senator Dole recently served as Co-Chair of the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. During the majority of his 35-year career in the Senate, he was Chair of the Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Senator Dole remains a committed advocate for hospice care, men’s health, and Americans with disabilities.
George Mitchell: During his tenure as Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mitchell was a key negotiator in Congress’ efforts to reform the health care system in the early 1990s. Additionally, through his membership on the Senate Finance Committee, he worked to provide health coverage for all Americans and increase the government’s investment in health care research and quality improvement.
The Leaders will actively direct discussion
and drafting of the policies and
recommendations issued by the Leaders’
Project. To assist them with their work,
the four Leaders solicited guidance from two of
the top health care policy experts in the
United States - Chris Jennings and Dr. Mark
McClellan - who have agreed to serve as
co-directors of the project.
- Chris Jennings is a health policy veteran of the White House, Congress and the private sector and currently serves as president of Jennings Policy Strategies, Inc. (JPS). Prior to founding JPS, he served in the White House as the Senior Health Care Advisor to President William J. Clinton at the Domestic Policy and National Economic Councils.
- Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., is Director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, Leonard D. Schaeffer Director's Chair in Health Policy, and Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, at the Brookings Institution. He has also served as an administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a senior health care policy advisor to President George W. Bush.
The Leaders also believe it is crucial to involve and engage a diverse group of stakeholders in the project, and are actively soliciting suggestions and insight from the corporate community, along with a wide range of health care organizations, advocates and other decision-makers. In addition to this broad outreach, the Leaders’ Project is seeking to establish ongoing discussions with a series of key partners – active, interested stakeholders who are deeply committed to ensuring the success of the project. The Leaders, co-directors Jennings and McClellan, and BPC staff envision engaging the key partners in targeted discussions and working groups that will ultimately help shape the tone and focus of the project.
The BPC is honored to have the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWFJ). RWJF is working to ensure that all Americans have stable, affordable health care coverage.
Developing a Meaningful Policy Framework for Bipartisan Action
The Leaders’ Project is structured around four “pillars” that, taken together, the Leaders believe represent the foundation of a solid policy needed to achieve quality, affordable health care for all Americans. The four pillars are:
1. Preserve and improve quality and value: demand value and safety throughout the health care system without undermining innovation; achieve greater quality in the delivery of health care.
2. Increase the availability and accessibility of affordable coverage options in a reformed insurance market: examine ways to ensure a broad range of affordable insurance policies in a market that is efficient, fair, and stable.
3. Promote the individual’s role in health care coverage and cost: explore ways to encourage participation in purchasing of health care through thoughtful and meaningful financial incentives; initiate public health reforms that encourage healthier lifestyles and a commitment to wellness.
4. Secure a workable financing mechanism for the nation’s health care system: determine ways to improve the equity and viability of financing mechanisms; explore options to reform the existing tax exclusion for health coverage; increase efficiency through modernization and streamlining of health care administration.
The Leaders’ Project centers around four policy forums that will be held across the country during 2008, each hosted by one of the four Leaders. In order to achieve a broad-based framework for bipartisan action, these events will integrate thoughtful policy insights from key stakeholders in the health care reform debate. Once the events are completed, the Leaders will agree to and issue a set of recommendations based on the testimony and information received throughout the course of the year. These recommendations will be incorporated into a final report that will be released in late 2008 or early 2009 to maximize the impact on the incoming Presidential Administration. The Leaders are committed to aggressive Congressional and Executive Branch advocacy for their recommendations.
In addition to exploring the concepts underlying the four health care pillars at public events, the BPC is pursuing a technical research agenda with the Center for American Progress and the American Enterprise Institute. These two highly regarded organizations will conduct in-depth analysis of relevant topics such as effectively and efficiently managing risk, reforming payment structures to promote quality and value, and developing individual and provider incentives to promote better health outcomes. Additional analysis will be provided by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution. The project will use its research agenda as yet another means of achieving consensus on historically controversial issues and supporting the final policy recommendations to the 111th Congress and the incoming Administration.
