By Susan Heavey
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers should take steps to retool the nation's health-care system but must avoid getting bogged down while hammering out a major plan, the head of the largest U.S. health insurer said on Monday.
Democrats, who earlier this month won the U.S. presidency and a larger majority in Congress, have promised vast reform focusing on increasing the number of Americans with health insurance, controlling costs and investing in electronic health records and other technology.
While any effort needs to be comprehensive in nature, the rising tide of uninsured Americans and other pressures mean some action must be taken now, WellPoint Inc (WLP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Officer Angela Braly told the Reuters Health Summit in New York.
"I think that the concern about doing a comprehensive package will be that it will slow things down," in part because it is still unclear how measures would be funded, she said.
Congress will likely first tackle legislation to boost the number of insured children through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is set to expire in March, she said. Lawmakers could then modify other programs, such as Medicare, which covers the nation's elderly and disabled.
Some lawmakers have already said SCHIP will be a priority when Congress reconvenes in 2009, but it is unclear whether SCHIP will be addressed on its own or lumped with other reforms.
WellPoint and other insurers have welcomed expansive health-care reform as a way to increase the number of consumers who buy coverage plans. Nearly 46 million Americans have no health insurance and more are losing their employee-sponsored benefits as unemployment rises to a near 15-year high.
Even as Congress and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama take various steps to get more people covered, they have to keep the big picture in mind, Braly said.
WellPoint, which has 35 million enrollees, could also potentially play a role in any private-public partnerships the government may create to help increase coverage, she said.
"We would like to see a path to universal coverage that's sustainable. You have to consider all the elements," Braly said.
Obama's plan would extend health coverage to two-thirds of the uninsured. But last week Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat whose committee oversees tax policies as well as Medicare and similar programs, said he supported a more universal plan that would cover all of them.
Braly said she supports universal coverage laid out in Baucus' plan, but that reform should also incorporate measures from other proposals. Congress should look at the plans adopted by several states, including California and Massachusetts.
Republicans have largely pushed for market-based reforms that would end employer coverage and encourage people to buy their own plans in part with tax deductions to insurers. Braly said she advocated tax cuts, but that they should be given to consumers directly to make buying coverage more affordable.
If the government decides to require citizens to buy health insurance, as some states have done, it should provide teeth to enforce it, so that people buy coverage before they get sick, she said.
Otherwise, people will procrastinate and "the rules of human behavior will end up producing a solution that's not affordable," she said. Continued...
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