Time to Pick a Side on Health Care Reform

Lieberman's plan to raise eligibility to 67 would mean huge costs

(NEWSER) - Joe Lieberman’s proposal to raise Medicare eligibility to age 67 is proof that we’ve really “gone off the rails,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . Really, we should be doing the opposite: extending Medicare, because it “actually saves money—a lot of money—compared with relying on private insurance companies.” Sure, Medicare spending per beneficiary, adjusted for inflation, has shot up more than 400% since 1969—but private health insurance premiums, also adjusted for inflation, have soared 700% in the same span. More»

Ends Bush tax cuts, adds public health care option

(NEWSER) - As the budget debate continues, the House Progressive Caucus has released a plan of its own—and it's all about taxes. Their proposal would end the Bush tax cuts, add new tax brackets for millionaires, and raise corporate taxes. It would also add a public option to health care and boost Medicare’s drug-price negotiating power—and it would allow for $1.4 trillion in new investments. The plan, House progressives say, would cut the deficit more than either President Obama’s or Paul Ryan’s over the next decade. More»

Market-based health care is sickening, Paul Krugman argues

(NEWSER) - Congressional Republicans took aim at the advisory board designed to reduce Medicare costs this week, arguing that what we really need is to make government health care “more responsive to consumer choice.” Which left Paul Krugman with one question: “How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as ‘consumers’?” he asks in the New York Times . We’re talking about receiving care like it’s no different than buying a car. “What has gone wrong with us?” More»

They don't really believe it will kill jobs, writes Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - In their effort to repeal health care reform, the GOP has produced “some numbers and charts to wave at the press”—but they’re not part of any “rational discussion,” writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times . Their figures are, in fact, part of the GOP's "war on logic." They blame health reform, for example, for costs that would exist anyway and dismiss the nonpartisan CBO's figures—which show that a repeal will boost the deficit—as mere "opinion." More»

Don't be taken in by misinformation, warns Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - Health care reform has made a miraculous comeback but its opponents are going to try to hoodwink the public with misinformation and lies down the home stretch, writes Paul Krugman. He outlines "three big myths" about reform in the New York Times .

• "The government is grabbing control of a sixth of the economy." Private insurance—mostly regulated, subsidized employee plans—only makes up a third of health spending. The only extra place the government is intervening now is the "disastrous" market in which people buy their own plans, he notes.