On Tuesday night in Bellevue, Senator Karen Keiser (D-Kent), chair of the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee, and Representative Eileen Cody (D-Burien), chair of the House Health Care & Wellness Committee, held their second in a series of four healthcare town halls.

Of the first two events in the series, Senator Keiser said she believes, “These are marvelous. Democracy in action.”

Thus far the town halls have gone smoothly and have been largely disruption free. That is in stark contrast to what people have seen from national news sources. “People have a lot of concerns,” said Senator Keiser. “It’s a wonderful development, they’ve been misrepresented.”

This town hall attracted several more members of the political world, including Senator Rodney Tom (D-Bellevue), Representative Ross Hunter (D-Bellevue), Steve Hill, Administrator of the Health Care Authority, and former State Representative Max Vekich, who is currently running to be a Seattle Port Commissioner.

Senator Keiser and Representative Cody emphasized the need for a transition to evidence based methods in healthcare policy, which will help reduce healthcare costs. Keiser cited the $55 million in savings in 2008 on prescription drugs when the drugs were compared by patient outcomes and the effectiveness of the drugs rather than their cost.

Washington legislators are now working with Congressman Jay Inslee to adapt some of that language for H.R. 3200, the healthcare reform bill from the House of Representatives.

Federal healthcare reforms would include consumer protections that prevent rescission, the practice of taking insurance away from consumers after they have become ill, extending health benefits of younger adults that are on their parents’ health plan to the age of 26, ending gender discrimination, and ending cost-sharing for preventative care, such as expensive colonoscopies.

Another key theme in the discussion was aligning physician incentives to patient outcomes. Currently, if a patient has the wrong arm amputated and has to go back in to get the other one removed, the hospital would be paid for both operations. Keiser said that under the new system, “Avoidable errors will not be reimbursed.” That would mean only “paying the hospital when you have recovery” she said.

Confronting popular misnomers in the media, Keiser assured the crowd, “There will be no death panels. There has never been a death panel.”

The pair also confronted reimbursement inequities around the country. Keiser said, Washington is 11% under the national average for Medicare reimbursements, and Florida is 13% over the national average. Yet Washington State has better outcomes, said Keiser.

Currently, taxpayers and people with health insurance pay for those who do not have health insurance but utilize medical facilities. “Healthcare is a system of cost shifting,” said Keiser. “We pay one way or the other.”