An Insightful Article on Health Care Costs

For those skeptical about the ability to restrain health care cost growth in heath reform, read Ron Brownstein’s latest article on how the bills now being considered in Congress would transform the health care system so that it delivers better care to more Americans at far less cost. 

 

As readers of this blog know, I just wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post laying out the four pillars that I (and 23 leading economists from across the political spectrum) believe must be part of fiscally responsible health reform: deficit neutrality, an excise tax on high-premium health plans, an independent Medicare commission, and game-changing delivery system reforms. 

Brownstein reads the bill, examines these pillars, and then calls up many of these economists to get their take on the Senate bill. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber — who calls himself "sort of a known skeptic on this stuff" — says, "Everything is in here....I can't think of anything I'd do that they are not doing in the bill." And Len Nichols of the New American Foundation told Brownstein: "The bottom line is the legislation is sending a signal that business as usual [in the medical system] is going to end."

 

All the elements are there for fiscally responsible health reform. For more, read the entire piece.