A luncheon speaker at the inaugural AdvaMed med-tech conference was Norm Coleman, Republication senator from Minnesota — home of several giants in the med-tech industry. And he expressed his suspicion of government intervention in healthcare by paraphrasing perhaps the most famous Minnesota governor (and, somewhat ironically, a Democrat), Hubert Humphrey: “Government can do something to you or for you – but it will do something.”

Coleman called this a major cause for concern because trade and reimbursement are both critical issues in the nation’s capital, which he called “a town of a thousand issues and few priorities.”

As to key current healthcare debates, he said: “As I look at this room today, I see the reason that health should not be turned over to the government,” and that nationalized healthcare would lead to more non-productive work for the private sector and more litigation for attorneys. “We cannot legislate or litigate our way into the future.”

And, “as Congress continues to debate issues such as SCHIP and FDA reform,” Coleman promised to do all he can to restrain Congress from needless intervention. Putting government in charge, he said, “is an easy solution to articulate” but healthcare decisions put “in the hands of bureaucrats” is not the solution to current healthcare dilemmas.

“We were headed for a trainwreck on SCHIP,” he acknowledged, predicting that the House would likely not override a veto.

He said of trade: “the new majority will probably not give us a whole lot and that should be an area of concern.”

About global competitiveness, he said that he hears complaints from Americans about low wages in Mexico, has heard the same complaint from Mexican businessmen about workers in China, and that Chinese businessmen grumble about workers in Viet Nam.

Coleman said that the low-wage race is obviously not something that the U.S. can win. So the economy must rely on innovation to maintain robustness and that the medical device industry is one of the keys to maintaining the innovation that will sustain U.S. economic growth.

“We pay one way or the other” for healthcare, he said, so universality of access is an imperative. Good healthcare needs “more technology, not less.”

Concerning upcoming spending bills, he was pessimistic about any immediate action. “I think we’ll be sipping eggnog before we get out” with a full series of spending bills.

— MARK McCARTY