Why Health Reform? Extending insurance coverage to tens of millions of un/underinsured? Great. But what about the nagging issue of slowing the rise of health spending in the U.S.? Well, that's another thing altogether.
White House Budget Director, Peter Orszag, is arguing for a tax on employer sponsored health insurance as a critical lever for reducing costs. House Republicans are focusing on containing malpractice costs as a mechanism for constraining inflation. The present House and Senate bills contain a variety of provisions, including taxing high-end benefits, creating incentives for physicians to form integrated care groups (though there are pretty compelling incentives right now), rate setting panels (remember the Rate Setting Commission in Massachusetts?), and others.
Cost savings estimates are scarce and/or high level. Look for the public debate to turn to this issue as Health Reform proponents begin to fall back on their heels in the coming weeks.
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