Health care costs more in the United States than it does anywhere else in the world. Many Americans don't have insurance at all. Others break their budgets paying for health care. A recent study found that millions of Americans actually put off care for chronic issues. If you haven't confronted this issue personally, chances are someone in your family or circle of friends has.
Against that backdrop, the health care industry surprised many who follow reform efforts this week by offering to put the brakes on health care costs over the next few years. The projected monetary impact: $2 trillion in savings over the next decade. The policy impact: While officials in Washington continue to weigh health care reform, they've now got a lot of financial wiggle room.
Or do they? There's nothing yet concrete about the $2 trillion figure from hospitals, insurers, doctors and pharmaceutical companies floated on Monday—many skeptics have a "I'll believe it when I see it" approach. And health care reform, despite strong support from the American public, is still a knotty, contentious issue, and there will be plenty of debating, bickering and deal-making if President Obama's goal of signing a bill later this year is to be realized.
Still, the gesture by the health care industry is significant.
As health care journalist Jonathan Cohn writes at The New Republic's "The Treatment" blog, these same industry groups fought health care reform the last time it was on the table, in 1994. Now they're sitting at that same table; as Cohn says, "This time, the industry groups aren't promising to control costs as an alternative to reform. They're promising to control costs as part of reform."
Indeed, 15 years ago, health care industry lobbyists rolled out their notorious "Harry and Louise" ads that featured a middle-class couple sitting at its kitchen table fretting over the idea of "government bureaucrats" meddling in their medical issues.
This time around, industry representatives are offering to help—not block—health care reform efforts. Is it because of a desire to help reform along, or because they see a train heading toward them and would rather climb aboard than get run over? Or a combination of both? And, if the result is a revamped system that offers more protection to more Americans, does it matter?
Oh, one more thing. For an idea of just how astronomically big the health care industry is in the United States: $2 trillion represents only about 1.5 percent of the health care spending growth rate in the coming 10 years.
****Provided courtesy of Bob@MSN Health
Posts
