The Seattle Times
October 14, 2003
Health care for the economy
By Kathleen O’Connor
Administrative expenses devour a 150-percent larger share of America’s health-care spending than our competitors in the Economic Group of Eight.
If we reduced this to only 25 percent more on non-care expenses than the worst of our competitors, the American economy would save $300 billion every year. That’s twice the annual tax savings claimed for the Bush tax cuts.
Much of our political establishment and many deep-pocket special interests have huge stakes in the status quo. These savings are not an abstraction. All our economic peers and competitors can do this.
But what happens when we try to discuss this? The knee-jerk “socialized medicine!” mantra. That universal coverage means “socialized medicine” is hogwash.
How long will we accept name-calling to protect the status quo? Are you better off with your health care than you were 10 years ago? Are you better off economically than you were five years ago? It’s time we changed the terms of the game.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001765078_kathleen14.html
Comment: It’s clearly time set ideology aside and include all models of reform in the debate. Let’s end the debate about “socialized medicine” and the “power of the marketplace,” and let’s look instead at specific policy issues and the impact that they would have on our health care system.
Kathleen O’Connor is contributing to this dialogue by sponsoring the “Build
an American Health Care System” contest (www.codebluenow.org). 109 models of reform have been submitted. Although they vary in their sophistication, they
certainly do provide a variety of approaches.
Reviewing the executive summaries of the finalists suggests that not much new territory was plowed in the field of health policy science. But such efforts do further reinforce the wisdom of the single-payer model of social insurance. Single payer does seems to be solidifying its position as the golden standard against which all other models should be compared.