A national conversation about health-care reform isn’t likely to end soon, although in Washington it’s muted because of the state’s budget crisis, says the CEO of the major advocacy group for state hospitals.
Leo Greenawalt, president and CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, was the keynote speaker Tuesday at the 2010 Economic Forecast Luncheon put on by the Renton Chamber of Commerce.
Greenawalt spoke on the federal health-care reform law and the importance of Valley Medical Center in Renton as an economic engine.
“It’s almost impossible to come up with an easy answer,” he said of the debate over health-care reform.
Greenawalt spoke to a large crowd at the Holiday Inn. Key sponsors of the luncheon included First Savings Bank Northwest and Valley Medical Center. Greenawalt was introduced by Valley Medical CEO Rich Roodman.
Valley Medical exploys 2,700, an increase of 700 since 2005, with a payroll of $153 million. Surrounding the hospital is a campus of medical offices where another 1,100 people work.
Those workers support an additional 2,700 jobs in the Renton area, Greenawalt said.
The health-care industry in Washington, with about 215,000 employees, is larger than the state’s aerospace industry. Unlike other industries, health-care employment has not declined during the recession, he said.
Greenawalt noted Valley Medical’s continuing string of awards as a best place to work, saying “you have a heck of an institution here.” He also took a poke at Roodman, known for his own gentle jabs, including at Greenawalt, saying that despite Roodman’s salary, “we will keep him here a little while longer.”
Roodman’s pay and retirement package has created controversy on the medical center’s board of commissioners.
Greenawalt spent the bulk of his speech talking about the political and social implications of health-care reform.
Using a Powerpoint presentation and his own family photos, he explained how the health-care percentage of the nation’s growth domestic product has grown from 4.5 percent when he was young to 18 percent today. Greenawalt is 66.
That growth, he said, can’t continue.
In the political realm, he said, Democrats, who pushed health-care reform through the U.S. House and Senate, and reform itself are “out of favor.” But an uninsured rate of 18 percent or so of the nation’s population “tends to tug at us.”
Americans are living longer, in part because of improved health care, he said. But that means the Social Security can’t keep pace with an aging population that will get full benefits at 66, he said. “I am 66. I am not old,” he said.
Democrats pushed for removing the rule that pre-existing conditions aren’t covered under new insurance and children up to 26 can be covered on parental insurance. In 2014, the regulations require that everyone have health insurance.
As Greenawalt explains, Democrats ask whether you want to give up those benefits, while Republicans say the nation can’t afford the costs of such reform. Americans, he said, tend to go with whatever promises immediate gratification.
