Robert J. Samuelson uses his latest Newsweek column to rebut the notion that the Obama administration’s health-care reform proposals will do anything to reduce costs.
The point is simple: even with highly optimistic assumptions, health
spending remains out of control. It absorbs more of government,
business, and family budgets. Higher health spending would put pressure
on future budget deficits, already projected to total about $9 trillion
over the next decade. If new taxes and Medicare “savings” are real,
they could be used exclusively to pay down deficits, not finance new
spending.But many may not be real. Writing in The Wall Street Journal,
Dr. Jeffrey Flier, dean of Harvard Medical School, gave the various
health bills a “failing grade” and said they wouldn’t “control the
growth of costs or raise the quality of care.” Dr. Delos Cosgrove, head
of the Cleveland Clinic, was quoted in NEWSWEEK saying practically the
same thing. The chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services, a federal agency, doubts the cost-saving provisions
touted by CAP would save much money. He’s also skeptical that Congress,
facing complaints from hospitals and a squeeze on services, would allow
all the Medicare reimbursement cuts to take effect.Health
spending might spontaneously slow, but history suggests skepticism. To
attack costs first would require admitting that not all good things are
possible simultaneously and that the uninsured already receive much
medical care.
