Main Street

Health Care Round-Up

• Over at Daily Kos, mcjoan looks at the House Democrats health care plan.
• Put June 25 on your calendar—there’s a major rally for health care reform on Capitol Hill.
• The Health Care for America Now Blog puts a Wall Street Journal article arguing that only the market can regulate health care costs (because that’s been going so well lately) head to head with the recent Atul Gawande article on health care costs in one of the most expensive medical environments in the U.S.
  

  Far from proving the WSJ’s thesis that regional variation in health costs owes to valuable experimentations in treatment, Gawande provides substantial evidence that costs rise in certain areas because of inefficiencies and perverse reward systems in the private health industry. Gawande and Dartmouth’s findings strengthen the White House’s case that a reformed health care system with a strong public option could improve care and reduce cost and inefficiency; the WSJ’s assertions remain merely speculations. The sad case of McAllen, Texas reminds us that the current system is broken and unfair for many Americans, and that far from getting cutting-edge care, many of us are simply being overcharged, overprescribed, and underserved.

• Again from HCAN, a look at the effect health care reform will have on the budget deficit. From a New York Times article:
  

  About 7 percent [of the deficit created between 2001, when we had a surplus, and now] comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas.

  Says HCAN:

  Health care costs threaten to consume one in every five dollars we spend by 2017 if things keep going how they’re going. We must get those costs down to save our economy, and that just may mean investing a little bit at the front end to realize the cost savings down the line.