About this time last year we offered a few thoughts on the healthcare reform initiative. We thought it might be interesting to revisit some of those points.
One of the concepts that we discussed a year ago was the notion that to succeed, the process needs to be kept simple. Some in Washington believe that a large part of the reason the Clinton healthcare reform effort failed was because the bill was 1,300 pages. At 2,000 and counting, today's bill is a long way from simple.
A year ago we also reflected on the belief by some in Washington that it is important to capitalize on the early wave of public sentiment and emotion inherent in these types of efforts. To succeed, patrons needed to complete the process before the campaign lost its momentum and energy.
Public opinion polls would indicate that much of the public is increasingly confused, disenchanted or even fearful concerning the present healthcare reform. While there is still much emotion left in this topic, the tide appears to be turning negative. Even supporters of President Obama's present day efforts are nervously reading the political tea leaves from NJ, VA and now MA.
It is hard to know where any of this will take us or when. One thing that is clear to us, however, is that change doesn't have to be bad. It should, however, be incremental. Most American's are happy with their healthcare, consider it world class and, while acknowledging its problems, do not want to wreck havoc with massive change. A smaller, slower-as-you-go reform may be the norm for years to come, regardless of political persuasion. Whether it is the levels of coverage, numbers of new participants brought into the program or just the psyche of the American public with regard to how they acquire healthcare, the system will continue to experience changes where consensus exists.
In keeping with the first concept mentioned above, we offer a simple piece of advice. Stay flexible, and keep your operations as simple as possible. To be flexible you, need data. If you don't have much now, find ways to capture it. Build in ways to calibrate your supply chain up or down. Increase communication throughout your network and establish benchmarks. And as always, call NML if we can help.
