Newt Gingrich endorses whose health plan?
The Ouachita Citizen (10/18/07) cited former Speaker (and possible 2012 Presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich praising the 2007 health care plan of then candidate Bobby Jindal!
Gingrich says that Jindal’s nine page plan in his 2007 campaign was more than most candiates will state:
“Too many candidates barely have nine words on their campaign website. Too few pro-actively talk about how to improve health care.”
Gingrich cites the following factors:
“The Jindal plan’s focus is on how best to achieve and maintain a healthier population. Healthier people are happier, have a higher quality of life, are more likely to work and therefore pay taxes instead of consume them. Healthier people are also far less expensive. Thus Jindal places heavy emphasis on promoting preventive and primary care.
He recognizes that a diverse health care delivery system is best able to meet the needs of individuals. He therefore favors allowing people to buy the type of insurance coverage that can best meet their own specific needs. Our current system, be it Medicare, Medicaid, or your employer’s plan, largely involves you taking what’s offered regardless of whether it is the ideal plan for you.
To deal with the troubled Medicaid program for low-income Louisianans, Jindal suggests four innovative waivers that have demonstrated success in other states. He also appreciates the lessons of Florida’s recent Medicaid reforms that now permit people on Medicaid to select from a menu of private plans that include incentive accounts for healthy behaviors. The early evidence out of Florida is that poor people in the new system are getting better health care at lower cost.
Health insurance can best serve you and your family if it is always there, regardless of your employer or employment status. Jindal’s plan outlines the advantages of portability of coverage. This can be attained by creating a health insurance “exchange” for individuals and businesses to buy and sell the right insurance for them. This exchange would increase the odds of you getting your preferred plan and reduce administrative overhead that adds unnecessary cost.
Promoting transparency is a central theme in Jindal’s message. A recent poll showed that 93 percent of Americans believe they have the “right to know” cost and quality details about their health care provider. There are two websites in the state of Florida, floridacomparecare.gov and myfloridarx.com, that show price and quality metrics for all hospitals in the state and the price of the 100 most prescribed prescription drugs. The state pays a miniscule $200,000 a year to create this powerful sunlight effect.
Health information technology is yet another way to dramatically improve the speed, accuracy, and effectiveness of our health care system. Personal electronic health records and e-prescribing can greatly reduce medical errors that cost up to 98,000 lives per year and billions of dollars in unnecessary injuries. An all-electronic system, for example, would have increased the coordination of care Katrina refugees received when they arrived in new cities.
Finally, Jindal focuses on how best to attract and retain primary care physicians. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 85 percent of Louisiana parishes are identified as having a shortage of health professionals. He suggests a tuition reimbursement incentive plan for doctors willing to practices in underserved areas.”
I have great respect for Speaker Gingrich. He is that rare factor in politics: A successful intellectual visionary. I support Governor Jindal because he is also such an intellectual visionary. I would urge President Obama (if he reads my blog on his Blackberry – please send me a comment!) to seek out Governor Jindal for help with the health care system. I don’ speak for the governor but that may be an opportunity for bipartisan solutions. Jindal brings experience from being the Secretary of Health and Hospitals in Louisiana (at the venerable age of 24!) and interest in the field.
Sandy Sanders
