Health Care Reform in the U.S.: What Will it Look Like and What Does it Mean?

Years of extreme partisanship and lobbying have left Americans cynical and bewildered about health care reform, but, say these panelists, the urgency of achieving some measure of change is not diminished, both for American families and the nation as a whole. The sad truth is that the problem may have become too complex and provocative for either public discourse or constructive legislative action. In his overview of the reform debate to date, Jonathan Gruber describes “what needs to be resolved to make it across the finish line.” He invokes the example of Massachusetts, which implemented an approach to health care in 2006 that Gruber calls “incremental universalism.” The system rests on three pillars: reforming insurance markets, an individual mandate, and making health insurance affordable for the poor. The bills idling in the House and Senate generally follow Massachusetts’ approach, but differ from each other around affordability and financing. Another big issue, cost control, is a hard sell to the majority of Americans currently carrying health insurance, since many would stand to lose. Cherry-picking popular pieces of legislation will fail, because “you need all three legs of the stool.” Gruber warns that “the Democrats and the President have to decide: Are they willing to go for all or live with nothing?” Today, one in every five dollars spent by the federal government goes toward health care, says Joseph J. Doyle, and in a decade or two, the U.S. will spend 10% of its GDP tending to health needs. Bending this steep cost curve, with or without expanding access to the uninsured, must be a priority because of the ballooning federal deficit. But doing so poses difficult choices: while the U.S. has an expensive health care system, rooting out waste isn’t easy, since “some things are expensive and save lives.” Doyle approves the current Senate bill’s demonstration projects that seek “to cut costs without hurting patients.” Experimenting with financial incentive...

Channel: MIT World Video Length: 0s Date Found: Tue, Mar 23 2010 4:24 AM Category: Science Date Produced: Fri, Jan 29 2010 12:00 AM View Count: 0