With all of this healthcare policy news dominated by the eleventh-hour meanderings of the Senate and House versions of the reform bill, it’s quite refreshing to see a new policy take on the debate altogether. Enter Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) and his plan to really bring choice to the patient as healthcare consumer. Although most Americans support some type of healthcare reform, their unity on the matter has gradually become less cohesive — in part due to talking points by conservative Blue Dogs in the House and general criticisms by Senate leaders and Obama on specifics of the costs of new reform legislation at the hands of Obama.

Wyden, whose recent notions for expanding coverage have drawn criticisms on both sides in the past couple of years since the Dems took over the Senate, wants to bring forth the “Free Choice” initiative. Instead of having to tolerate restrictions a likely watered down reform package would mean for the un- and underinsured, the patient would have the choice of government regulated insurance exchanges which would offer an acceptable standard of care. Previously, proposed models for exchanges only applied to those individuals who could not afford their own employer-sponsored plans (they were prohibited from other options). In Wyden’s world, every patient, not just the priced-out, could leave their employer-based plan (whose coverage parameters would vary) by taking the difference between what his/her employer would have paid and applying it to an approved healthcare exchange marketplace.

Yes, there are the pesky policy points about employers being left with high-risk pools, healthy and sick patients eventually “exchanging” themselves into their own unique pools, and the overall ability for the government to actually ensure that the level of care is the same across all choices, but, give credit to Wyden for reframing the debate on reform to one that actually attempts to reform the reform. LINK [PDF]

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