04/23/12. ACHA submits feedback on the College Scorecard

04/19/12. Self-funded Student Health Benefit Plans and Minimum Essential Coverage

04/12/12. FAQs about Final Regulations for Student Health Insurance Plans

03/16/12. Final Federal Regulations on Student Health Insurance Plans Announced

03/02/12. Health Care Reform Update: Joint Letter to HHS from ACE, ACHA, and other Higher Ed Organizations — March 2, 2012

 

By whatever name (“health care reform,” “health system reform,” “national health reform,” “health insurance reform,” etc.) an overhaul of our national system of providing and paying for health care, health services, and health products/devices was undertaken by the policymakers in Washington, D.C. in early 2009. Not since 1993-1994, during former President Clinton’s first term in office, had there been such focus and commitment to this issue.

The impetus was clear:

“I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. Once again, it will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.” ¹

The urgency was set forth by lawmakers on Capitol Hill:

“In 2009, Congress must take up and act on meaningful health reform legislation that achieves coverage for all Americans while also addressing the underlying problems in our health system. The urgency of this task has become undeniable…we all must realize that the costs of inaction, both in human and financial terms, will eventually be far greater than any initial outlays. We must choose to invest now in a health care system that will richly repay the nation with greater health and economic stability in the long term.” ²

Prominent national leaders espoused that the time was upon us:

“The time has come, finally, to fix our broken health-care system.” ³

Over the ensuing months, there developed a resolve in varying levels from many major sectors (employers; labor; consumer groups; health care providers; health plan providers; manufacturers of health care goods and services; and federal, state, and local governments) that the time was at hand for major reform. However, with this number of stakeholders, and the complexity of the issues, consensus was never reached,
bi-partisanship evaporated, and yet; in the end national health reform legislation was passed by the Congress.

ACHA’s Role in Health Care Reform > >

 

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¹ Remarks of President Barack Obama — Address to Joint Session of Congress, February 24, 2009, Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/remarks-of-president-barack-obama-address-to-joint-session-of-congress/

² Call To Action: Health Reform 2009, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.),
November 12, 2008, p. vi. Available at: http://finance.senate.gov/healthreform2009/finalwhitepaper.pdf.

³ Daschle T, Lambrew JM, Greenberger SS. Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis. New York: Thomas Dunne Books; 2008, p. 206.