Daschle’s Withdrawal Sparks Questions About the Future of Healthcare Reform?

With Sen. Tom Daschle’s withdrawal from consideration for Secretary of the Health and Human Services (HHS), there are major questions regarding whether this will derail President Obama’s healthcare reform plans.

Fear not (or at least not yet), America. Daschle’s withdrawal will not disrupt healthcare reform; it is seemingly only going to force President Obama, and the rest of the lawmakers, to renew their efforts to bring forth a healthcare reform act, as promised throughout the presidential campaign and post-election periods. On Tuesday, Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Senate Finance Committee chairman commented after Daschle's announcement: "If anything, there's more urgency for us to keep up the momentum." With our current economic meltdown and millions of announced and future lay-offs, I believe there is no end in sight to healthcare cost increases and increasing millions of uninsured Americans. Therefore, I believe it will be an accelerating mandate that President Obama and the Congress keep the energy and focus behind healthcare reform. It will not go away. We need better healthcare options, plain and simple.

This is a very crucial time for our great country. The future of healthcare in the US will undoubtedly be impacted by how “hands on” the President, his new HHS nomination, and lawmakers are as driving forces behind their attempts to affect change.

There are no clear answers on how US healthcare will evolve in the future. However, Consumer Driven Healthcare (CDH) is becoming a “trickle-up” effect as consumers are now beginning to call many of the shots and seem to be making better personal health and wealth decisions. There are some interesting studies that are being published that document the cost savings and better healthcare choices that can result from CDH. I will plan to highlight some of these studies in my future blogs.

Inspiration for Blog thought of the day: http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-healthcare4-2009feb04,0,1530480.story