To Cut Deficit, Rein in Health Costs: Orszag

Donald Berwick says 20-30% of health care spending helps no one

(NEWSER) - Between 20% and 30% of all US health care spending is pure “waste,” according to departing Medicare and Medicaid chief Donald Berwick. “Much is done that does not help patients at all, and many physicians know it,” Berwick said in an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, his last day on the job. He cited overtreatment of patients, the failure to coordinate care, complex administrative systems, burdensome regulations, and fraud as the main reasons for the “extremely high level of waste.” More»

Advisers outline cost control measures for health plan

(NEWSER) - The White House has come down firmly on the Senate's side over big discrepancies between the House and Senate health bills. Senior advisers to President Obama said yesterday an excise tax on expensive, "Cadillac" health plans and a commission to control Medicare spending were among the “four pillars" essential to containing the cost of health care reform, the New York Times reports. Both measures appear in the Senate's bill but not the House's. More»

Gap dwarfs FY2008 figure, spells trouble for new stimulus plans

(NEWSER) - The federal deficit in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was $1.4 trillion, lower than projected but still a record. At 10% of GDP, the figure is the largest since 1945, when the deficit was 21.5% of GDP. The figure made public today coincides with early rumblings about extending some features of last winter's $787 billion stimulus package, the New York Times reports. More»

(NEWSER) - The federal budget deficit will surpass $1.8 trillion during the current fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said today. The figure far outstrips the previous estimate of $1.2 trillion and spells trouble for President Obama's proposed budget, the Wall Street Journal reports, but the White House budget director said the projection won't derail the administration's plans. More»

Ending Bush tax cuts could eliminate deficit, CBO says

(NEWSER) - Ballooning entitlements threaten to push the national debt bigger than the entire US economy by 2021, and twice that size within 25 years, according to a pessimistic Congressional Budget Office report. “The health care programs are the main drivers of that growth,” wrote the CBO. But with Democrats refusing to cut programs and Republicans refusing to raise taxes, the debt has nowhere to go but up, notes the Washington Post . More»