Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Changing the Agenda
As executive head of the American Hospital Association (AHA), Richard Umbdenstock attended two recent conferences at the White House. The first was the Fiscal Responsibility Summit that dealt with the current economic crisis. The second was on Health Care Reform.
He reported on those conferences in the April 9 issue of H&HN, the journal of the AHA.
I believe this is the first commentary on health care reform by Umbdenstock that I have seen that did not mention the uninsured, except as a financial burden for hospitals. Instead, his report focused on the Obama administration’s emphasis on the theme of containing the cost of care.
Apparently, President Obama’s efforts to move the health care reform agenda away from a sole fixation on the uninsured and in the direction of containing cost are beginning to have an effect.
As executive head of the American Hospital Association (AHA), Richard Umbdenstock attended two recent conferences at the White House. The first was the Fiscal Responsibility Summit that dealt with the current economic crisis. The second was on Health Care Reform.
He reported on those conferences in the April 9 issue of H&HN, the journal of the AHA.
I believe this is the first commentary on health care reform by Umbdenstock that I have seen that did not mention the uninsured, except as a financial burden for hospitals. Instead, his report focused on the Obama administration’s emphasis on the theme of containing the cost of care.
Apparently, President Obama’s efforts to move the health care reform agenda away from a sole fixation on the uninsured and in the direction of containing cost are beginning to have an effect.
