Taming Runaway Health Care Costs

Letters
The New York Times
May 16, 2009

To the Editor:

David Leonhardt, in his May 13 column (”Health Care, a Lesson in Pain,” Economic Scene), is quite right that “the only way to have a sustainable universal health care system is to control costs.” But in analyzing the experts’ testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on how to pay for health care, he did not mention a solution that neither the experts nor the committee wants to consider: major reform of the system.

Runaway costs are due largely to high overhead expenses throughout the system, and to the excessive use of expensive technology. Both of these result from a health care system that is organized like a profit-seeking industry instead of a social service.

If we want health care to be a universal entitlement, it cannot be controlled by market forces and the financial interests of insurers and providers (and the investors who own such a large part of the system).

Some kind of government-regulated single-payer insurance plan and a reorganized nonprofit medical care delivery system may be “off the table” for policy makers right now, but we will never achieve affordable universal coverage without major reform that deals with the real causes of medical inflation.

We don’t need more money; we need a new system.

Arnold S. Relman
Marcia Angell
Cambridge, Mass.

The writers, medical doctors, are former editors in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/l16health.html

Although single payer advocates were not allowed to testify at the Senate Finance Committee roundtable on reform, the New York Times seems to agree that the concept of comprehensive reform is worthy of their Letters page.

When will the opinion editors decide that the concept is worthy of a guest op-ed? More importantly, when will the news editors decide that the the suffering, financial hardship, and death is worthy of a news report on the political suppression of policies that would greatly improve the health and financial outcomes of those who face significant medical problems? Shouldn’t that be an above-the-fold front page story?

Addendum: Today “single payer health care” was discussed on The Diane Rehm Show by guests Dr. David Himmelstein, Sen. Bernie Saunders, Roger Hickey, and Susan Dentzer. The program is archived at:
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/05/18.php#26151