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Opening Arguments

Incremental crunch

Sounds good to me:

You wouldn't know it from the headlines, but it's crunch time on health-care reform. In a series of high-level meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill, critical decisions are being made that will help decide whether the comprehensive health reform that has eluded policymakers for decades finally comes to fruition -- and what the system will look like for decades.

[. . .]

"If it isn't done this year, it won't be done for the next four years," Iowa's Charles Grassley, a key player as the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said last week at a breakfast sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation. "If we do something incremental this year, we're never going to have comprehensive health-care reform."

Let's "do something incremental" for President Obama's education and environmental plans, and maybe we can

Comments

William Larsen
Mon, 03/23/2009 - 9:26pm

Health-care a dirty non four letter word. Many analysts state up to 25% of health-care is to cover administrative costs. This is a high percent. It covers the doctor

Michael B-P
Tue, 03/24/2009 - 12:40pm

As usual, William Larsen makes entirely too much sense and must surely be under surveillance by now as a "domestic terrorist suspect."

I'm always astounded when the "full charge" appearing on an invoice for service which I receive from a medical service provider is then discounted by 25-35% due to the "protection money" I've paid by subscribing to the insurer. Who is picking up the difference?

My understanding and experience is that the administrative layer interposed between client and provider, while it does provide a service, also bears the potential cost of miscommunication between physian and patient, but more importantly, distracts from the medical mission. The employer-provided aspect of insurance also bears less and less relevance in an economy which demands greater and greater job mobility.

The incremental approach mentioned reminds me of the old Abbott and Costello routine," Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch..." Government as burlesque show.

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