Saturday, September 12, 2009

"Please Don't Call It Health Reform"

Readers of this blog already know of my disappointment in what the White House and many in Congress are calling "health care reform."

So, I was happy to see Alain Enthoven's recent KHN op-ed.

Here is a small portion of it:
"Once again the President did not put forth serious proposals to reduce the growth rate in health expenditures in his speech last night. Obama likes to talk about the iconic systems: Mayo, Intermountain, Kaiser Permanente, and Geisinger, but the Democratic bills do practically nothing to promote their growth or systems like them.

"The House Tri-Committee and Senate HELP Committee bills offer none of the fundamental reforms that would be likely to change the system or significantly slow growth in expenditures. Rather, what they offer is continuation of our present traditional employer-based, non-competitive fee-for- service system. They don’t respond to the President’s call for reforms that would lower the growth trajectory, or even that would not add to the fiscal deficit."

I highly recommend your reading all of it here.