Health reform a top priority

Major reform of the health system is a top priority for the general public as well as for members of the progressive group MoveOn.

In a Washington Post-ABC News Poll, more than three quarters of Americans said they wanted to see “major changes” in the health system. And of those, about two thirds wanted the President-elect Barack Obama to move immediately, rather than waiting until later in the presidential term. 

Also, about two-thirds said they were optimistic that the Obama administration would achieve “significant improvements” in the health system.

Health reform was also named as the top priority by members of MoveOn. In online voting, 65% of MoveOn members listed universal health care as one of their top three goals for 2009 – edging out even economic recovery and job creation, which finished second with 62%.

Health care industry executives and policy scholars seem ready for major changes, too.   In a poll of “opinion leaders” by the Commonwealth Fund and the trade publication Modern Healthcare, 85 percent called for changing the way doctors and hospitals are paid, to create incentives for quality rather than just for volume of service. Such payment reform is likely to be a key element of any health reform proposal from the Obama administration and Congress.