ICYMI: The Atlantic -- "No Bill from Our Congress is Going to Meaningfully 'Bend the Cost Curve'"
Posted by The Campaign on November 19, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Megan McArdle, a journalist for The Atlantic, highlights underlying costs in Congress' health care bills.
Here are a few key excerpts:
"Well, according to the CBO, the savings achieved by Subtitle A, the main delivery system reform part of the bill, are trivial--not really distinguishable from zero, when you consider the uncertainties inherent in the estimates."
"If the mechanism for holding down costs is not realistic--and neither the head of CMS, nor the head of the CBO, seem to think that it is--then in all likelihood, you're planning to increase the budget deficit, whether you want to or not."
"[if] it [excise tax on high cost plans] ends up just being a heavy tax on a random group of people who happen to have expensive health insurance, then it won't cut health care costs, and also, will probably end up being repealed.
"None of these make any real changes to the incentives of either the providers of health care services, or the people who consume them. All they do is tinker with the level of the third party payments. That's not reform. It's wishful thinking."
For the full article, click here.
