Health Affairs Blog: Cortese On Reform - The Hard Part Is the Delivery System

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by Chris Fleming

As anyone who has been observing recent goings-on in the Senate Finance Committee knows, moving toward universal coverage is no easy matter. No sooner did Finance Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) release his long-awaited Chairman’s mark of health reform legislation than he was pushed to increase the subsidies available to low- and middle-income Americans to purchase insurance.

But as hard as health insurance reform is, compared to health care delivery reform, that’s the easy part, Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese said at the National Press Club on Friday. Cortese has been a key player in health reform discussions. Mayo has been frequently cited as a model for health care delivery reform by President Obama and others, but the question of Mayo’s value as a model for overall reform has also generated controversy.

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