McCain's Veepstake's: Rob Portman

Human Events, Apr 21, 2008 by Gizzi, John

With regard to Medicare, reforms that include increasing means testing and making slight adjustments to the "inflation indicator" actually save "billions of dollars, even over the next few decades he says.

Portman believes there are "some good private-sector models" where people's health care costs are lowered or contained if they engage in healthier lifestyles, and he has become intrigued with some "outcome" studies by Peter Orzag, a Democrat who's now the head of the Congressional Budget Office.

"He's taken some analysis of health care that I've spent some time looking at and it's actually quite interesting.... He focuses on outcomes and quality rather than inputs and he's starting to put some numbers behind that."

Medicare, Portman believes, could potentially secure some big savings by, for instance, reimbursing providers based on successful outcomes in major surgery cases.

I referred to a conversation with Kathleen Harrington, onetime top staffer to former Medicare overseer Dr.Mark McClellan, in which she insisted that the prescription drug entitlement sought by the Bush Administration and enacted by Congress in '03 was bringing down the cost of prescription drugs for senior citizens.

"Kathleen's right," Portman shot back, adding that "when you have competing providers rather than a government takeover on the prescription drug side it ends up being less expensive."

He dubbed the package that passed the House by two votes following intense administration pressure "a better model than Medicare because it has more private sector involvement."

But Portman also warned that the measure that was so controversial to conservatives "has increased the pressure on Medicare spending" and one cannot escape die fact that "it has increased the overall burden that is currently unsustainable. So [supporters are] right and those who criticize it are right, in that sense."

What can McCain (who defied the Bush White House and voted against the prescription drag bill) say and do about it today?

Portman feels "you have to look at it two ways: that it actually provides a better model and the response from seniors is high and it means that we need to do what the Medicare trustees have now asked Congress to do, which is come up with sensible reforms for these programs. All of them."

After so much discussion of policy, the interview with Rob Portman ended where it began-on state and national politics and what role he will play in it.

The former congressman dismissed talk that it would be difficult for Republicans to carry his key electoral state, noting that he had six polls in front of him showing McCain leading either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in Ohio.

Portman also voiced interest in possibly running for governor in 2010, and, more significantly, helping Republicans "regain some trust from the voters.

"That's what I'm focused on and I'm focused on being sure John McCain is our next President. I think the alternative is unacceptable and I think this is a historic time in our country."