David B. Kendall is a health policy analyst best known for crafting a new progressive agenda for health care. During his previous role at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and its affiliate, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), Kendall developed innovative policies for reforming health care financing and delivery. His work has been praised on the editorial page of The New York Times, by national columnists such as Morton Kondracke and James Glassman, and by former Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and John Breaux (D-LA) and Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA).
Prior to joining PPI in 1994, he served for seven years on the staff of Congressman Michael A. Andrews (D TX) where he held several positions including legislative director and senior policy director. In 1994, he worked extensively with the Jackson Hole Group and Congressman Jim Cooper on major health reform legislation known as managed competition. In 1993, he served on the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform, and in 1986, Mr. Kendall was a legislative assistant to Congressman James R. Jones (D OK), a former chairman of the Budget Committee. He attended the University of Chicago as an undergraduate.
For 35 years, the health care debate has been about covering the uninsured. Tonight the President made it about the middle class. There is no underestimating the impact this will have on the debate. Congressional Republicans may have decided to oppose this bill for political purposes, but many Republicans and Independents outside the beltway will take another look at this debate because the President has made it about the middle class.… Read more
It’s been a hot summer, no doubt about it. But as the sun sets on August, will the cooling breezes of September calm the debate, or will it be another month of death panels and protests? As one who was around in 1993 when health care reform had a withering autumn, I believe supporters of reform are in far, far better shape. After struggling with a message and frame, President Obama's new message about health insurance reform has staying power. In fact there is only way to respond to the emotionally charged fears about the alleged sacrifices that await… Read more
While 47 million people are uninsured, the reforms for the insured are every bit as significant as those for the uninsured. In fact, this bill does more for the insured than any legislation in history. As Ron Pollack and Drew Altman point out, it is critical that more of the middle class see that health care reform will benefit them. Fortunately, the bulk of the legislation is about reforms that will do just that. The Herndon Alliance and Third Way have described the keys benefits in ways that all Americans can understand and appreciate: You will always have options for coverage,… Read more
In 1994, a middle class, a middle aged couple from the suburbs named Harry and Louise defeated health care reform. They turned their back on reform because congressional Democrats and the WH couldn’t answer the one question they asked: What’s in it for us? 15 years later, they’ve been sitting and watching from the sidelines. It’s time to bring them back into the debate. The conventional wisdom is the way to reach middle class is a message of cost control. But what’s really behind concerns about high costs is that the erosion of benefits and the threat of losing… Read more
In a week chock full of health care and budget news, some of the slower moving stories may have been missed. An opening speaker at President Obama’s summit on fiscal responsibility, Bob Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, laid out a critically important framework for health care reform by making two key points: "First, if we want to slow the rate of growth in healthcare costs system wide, then Medicare needs to help lead that effort. To institute payment and delivery system reforms that the private sector then picks up. And second, because healthcare… Read more
Health care reform is an opportunity to improve fiscal discipline. In fact, it is a necessity. Without reform that includes cost restraint, the prospects for covering the uninsured will diminish, and the long-term fiscal health of the nation will be at risk. Fiscal discipline is inextricably linked to health care. The public foots the bill for about 56 percent of the nation’s health care spending. The biggest spenders, Medicare and Medicaid will push up the government’s share even further as the baby boomers retire and as medical inflation continues to exceed general inflation. Another big spender, the tax break for… Read more
Normal 0 The most troubling aspect of this discussion, which is nonetheless very interesting, is an ideological undertone that threatens to undermine a successful endgame for health care reform. Some on the left take the efficiency of a public insurance plan as an article of faith and offer the lower administrative costs of Medicare as proof. Some on the right see the efficiency of private market competition as indisputable and point to waiting lines for care as the inevitable result of collective action. Surely, there’s enough inefficiency in both the public and private health care sectors that the nation… Read more
As with many of President-elect Obama’s initiatives, health care reform will have substantial upfront costs, but an even bigger long-term payback. Sens. Max Baucus and Ron Wyden, Andy Stern, and Len Nichols all rightly point that the payback will be a healthier, more productive nation and a more productive health care sector, not to mention the social justice achievement. The necessary investments include coverage and access to care for the uninsured, chronic care management, medical homes, information technology, integrated care systems, etc. The challenge is how to budget the upfront costs while ensuring that investments deliver actual savings. The… Read more
Sen. Max Baucus’proposal is exactly what the health reform debate needs right now to move it forward: a bold, legislative proposal that brings together key ideas in a coherent and compelling fashion. In other words, it makes the debate real. Until this moment, the ideas discussed by the Democratic candidates during the presidential campaign had not been cast as a legislative proposal. The Baucus proposal is a critical step towards turning ideas like a national health insurance exchange, requirements for Americans to obtain health insurance, and provider payment reforms into legislation. For that reason alone, the Baucus proposal is highly… Read more
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