Gov. Tim Pawlenty Sunday shared his views on health care with the nation's thought-leaders in a Sunday opinion piece in Washington Post.
In the piece, he recommends five ways to reform health care.
His list won't shock those who've followed the governor but does show the governor's ability (and desire) to put his ideas in front of national audiences. His proposals:
- Give incentives for employees to pick high-quality, low-cost plans, ala Minnesota public employees.
- Pay for performance, like Minnesota's QCare program
- Tort reform, something Republicans have long pushed.
- Allow inter-state health care purchases, an idea Pawlenty began pushing last year, mentioned in his State of the State speech and, according to some experts, is already theoretically allowed.
- Link health insurance to the individual, rather than the job.
You can read the whole piece here.
The Democratic National Committee Sunday said there's nothing new in Pawlenty's proposals.
In an email titled "Tim Pawlenty Get's an "F" for Attentiveness on Health Care Debate" DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse says :
"We welcome Governor Pawlenty to the debate on how to best address our looming health care crisis. However, he seems to have not been paying much attention to the debate (too busy delivering $100,000 campaign checks from wealthy donors perhaps?). Governor Pawlenty seems to have missed the proposals that Democrats have been discussing for the last nine months. If he had been paying any attention at all, he would know that Democrats, in fact, have included health care portability in their proposals, and the President has specifically said that he would be willing to work with Republicans on liability reform. And prohibiting discrimination against consumers with pre-existing conditions has always been a core principle of the President's reform efforts. Rather than jumping into this conversation after serious proposals have been debated for months, the Governor might have taken the time to study up on the issues."
