Washington's healthcare summit

PR pros weigh in on Washington's healthcare summit

Gil Bashe, EVP and practice leader for Makovsky Health, previously launched HealthQuest Communications and served as CEO of CommonHealth:

Politics took a front seat to process in today's healthcare summit conversation, and Republicans maintained a slight edge in forcing their agenda. Patients and pocketbooks, however, might be the ultimate losers in healthcare reform legislation based on the Senate bill. The House bill includes key points essential to reducing costs and improving care delivery ranging from addressing lifetime caps to biosimilar pathway. 

While the White House attempted to set the tone for collaboration and called out the Republicans' partisan plays, the GOP showed it was at the table but not ready to rubberstamp the president's game plan. What the Republicans failed to do is show substance to their concerns. Fortunately for both parties, most Americans do not fully understand the critical issues beyond political slogans of “Trillion-dollar cost” and 2,000 unread pages. 

The White House has yet to exhibit a bipartisan approach to reform and the Minority leadership failed to demonstrate specific reasons why Congress must start afresh...

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