Health Care Opponents Aren't (All) Crazy

Pilot programs might be the best way to solve the cost problem

(NEWSER) - The Senate health care plan ensures universal coverage, but when it comes to controlling costs, all it offers is…pilot programs. Sounds pretty flimsy, right? “Two thousand seventy-four pages and trillions of dollars later, this bill doesn’t even meet the basic goal,” complained Mitch McConnell, “to lower costs.” But pilot programs might just be the solution, writes Atul Gawande of the New Yorker . After all, they worked for runaway food prices in the 1900s. More»

*But please don't touch mine, no matter how wasteful

(NEWSER) - The brouhaha over mammograms proves that we’ll never corral health care costs for one simple reason: no one wants to give up any care. Intellectually, women may understand that life-threatening breast cancer is pretty rare before age 50, but rare doesn’t mean non-existent. “Many women would rather be safe than sorry,” writes Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post , “and safe costs money.” More»

Lowering health care costs means cutting unnecessary end-of-life treatment

(NEWSER) - Nobody wants to talk about rationing health care, but “the need to spend less money on the elderly at the end of life is the elephant in the room in the health-reform debate,” Evan Thomas writes in Newsweek. To expand coverage and lower costs, Americans must overcome their urge to extend life at any price, and “learn to contemplate death as more than a scientific challenge to be overcome.” More»

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama took the stage in New Hampshire today to set the record straight about Democratic health care reform efforts. Though the crowd was all applause, Obama took on the raucous protests that have characterized recent town halls. “Let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations,” he said, laughing off rumors that the government would set up “death panels that will basically pull the plug on Grandma.” More»

He wants to reduce Medicare payments to hospitals

(NEWSER) - In an effort to pay for his ambitious health care plans, Barack Obama today proposed another $313 billion in cuts to government health care spending over the next decade, the Wall Street Journal reports. That brings the total cuts proposed to nearly $950 billion, just shy of the $1 trillion his health plan is expected to cost. More»