The article states this should have been addressed 10 years ago..which is true…but this is today, so we need a plan, a budget, and some new politicians for that sake! If an all over sales tax of a few pennies is needed, then so be it to help finance health care, and get the private insurers profits back down to normal levels as well. The current mix is not going to float much longer and all the band aids have fallen off…BD
In what is fast becoming a repetitive exercise, some of Washington's top
economists warned lawmakers Tuesday that health-care spending threatens to devour the nation's economy unless Congress steps in with sweeping reforms. The message is hardly news on Capitol Hill, where some policy-makers have sounded a similar alarm for years. But forecasting a fiscal doomsday is easier than convincing a divided Congress to prevent it. Indeed, despite the urgency of the health spending warnings, lawmakers agree that no major reforms are coming this election year.
Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, cautioned lawmakers that continued inaction will have dire economic consequences.
But change won't come easily. That $700 billion doesn't go into a hole, it goes into the pockets of medical personnel nationwide. Eliminate a third of the dollars spent on medical services, and jobs will surely follow. In an already struggling economy, no one -- least of all a politician -- wants to bear responsibility for hiking unemployment, even if it's done for the sake of preserving Medicare.
For some observers, the delay is becoming more and more inexcusable.
Asked how quickly Congress should act, Orszag replied dryly: "Ten years ago would be the appropriate response to that question."
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