Reform Or Else

Paul Krugman points out we will always have a debt crisis until we get our health care expenditures under control. Policy change is a must.

"Health care reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of “centrist” senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.

But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way."

As America ages and lives longer, we have to change the current model. And we can't expect am industry that treats health care as profits to make the changes.

And it seems this is the right sort of Bill and the right thing to do at this time:

"The fact that we’re seeing the first really serious attempt to control health care costs as part of a bill that tries to cover the uninsured seems to confirm what would-be reformers have been saying for years: The path to cost control runs through universality. We can only tackle out-of-control costs as part of a deal that also provides Americans with the security of guaranteed health care."

Anyone who is truly concerned about fiscal policy should be anxious to see health reform succeed.

Source: NYT