Crossposted at DemConWatch here.
This morning, the Council on Economic Advisers Health Care Report comes off embargo. It is the case for health care reform, and you can read it here. (It's on SlideShare, and this format didn't allow for it to fit.)
The information is correct in terms of laying out the case for major overhaul of our health care system. The report does not, however, detail how all of those changes should be accomplished.
Specifics after the jump.
One of the major points has to do with the inequities in current Medicare spending, and how often spending more leads to worse care. They give the facts, but if you really want to understand how severe this problem is, you will want to read this article. It compares medical care in McAllen, TX to other places in the US. Here's the set-up:
McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns.
The explosive trend in American medical costs seems to have occurred here in an especially intense form. Our country’s health care is by far the most expensive in the world. In Washington, the aim of health-care reform is not just to extend medical coverage to everybody but also to bring costs under control. Spending on doctors, hospitals, drugs, and the like now consumes more than one of every six dollars we earn. The financial burden has damaged the global competitiveness of American businesses and bankrupted millions of families, even those with insurance. It’s also devouring our government. "The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security," President Barack Obama said in a March speech at the White House. "It’s not the investments that we’ve made to rescue our economy during this crisis. By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It’s not even close."
The question we’re now frantically grappling with is how this came to be, and what can be done about it. McAllen, Texas, the most expensive town in the most expensive country for health care in the world, seemed a good place to look for some answers.
The article finds the answers, and 100% of them are related to a profit motive. While the author probably never had the intention, the stories and explanations are one of the strongest cases yet for Single Payer, Universal Health Care.
Here in Pennsylvania we will be having a rally on the steps of the State Capitol in Harrisburg next Thursday, 11 June in support of state bills Senate 400 and House Bill 1660. You can find more information on the rally here.