Job creation appears to be the top priority for President Obama, but he hasn’t forgotten about health care legislation. This week, he vowed to “punch it through” resistance in Congress.
Vivian Ho, the Baker Institute’s Chair in Health Economics, believes a potential winning strategy for the president might be to focus on children — specifically the issue of uninsured children.
She writes about that issue in this Jan. 31 op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, “A realistic, pragmatic approach to health care reform.” Here is an excerpt:
“Implementing universal access to health care for all children is politically acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans, and it is generally appealing to the public. Past research has also demonstrated that insuring children is much less expensive than covering adults (because children are healthier on average than adults) and is in fact cost-saving to society in the long run.”
You can also learn more about health insurance and children in this 2009 Baker Institute report, “The Economic Impact of Uninsured Children on America.”
What do you think? Would a focus on uninsured children be a winning strategy for President Obama?