Sen. Baucus Discusses Prospects for Health Care Overhaul This Year

Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report
February 4, 2009

(Sen. Max) Baucus also said that he does not believe a single-payer health care system is the right model for the U.S. at this time because the shift would be too big of a change and would place too much of the private sector under control of the government. He said, “We’re constituted differently than European countries” with single-payer systems, adding, “There’s more of an entrepreneurial sense” in the U.S. “So we’ve got to come up with a uniquely American result. And a uniquely American result will be a combination of public and private insurance,” Baucus said (CQ HealthBeat, 2/3).

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/Daily_reports/print_report.cfm?DR_ID=56795&dr_cat=3

And…

The Biggest Idea in Health Care

By Andy Louis-Charles
The Motley Fool
February 3, 2009

Andy Louis-Charles: Your thoughts on a single-payer system? Should health care be treated any different than police, fire, or postal services?

Uwe E. Reinhardt: Many countries with single-payer systems (Canada, Taiwan, etc.) ask that question. Those countries do view health care like fire protection and elementary and secondary education, and they structure their health system accordingly. We are rather an exception, viewing health care as basically a private-consumption good, but we don’t quite believe that either — hence the coexistence of unbridled kindness and unbridled callousness in our health system. We do not have our head straight on this issue. Other countries have.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/02/03/the-biggest-idea-in-health-care.aspx

So with Tom Daschle stepping out of the picture, Sen. Max Baucus is maneuvering to take the lead on reform by advocating for a “uniquely American result” with “more of an entrepreneurial sense” since “we’re constituted differently than European countries.”

Uwe Reinhardt quite correctly characterizes the U.S. exceptionalism as “the coexistence of unbridled kindness and unbridled callousness in our health system.” It really is time that we learn from other countries so that we can get “our head straight on this issue.”