The Real Health Care Problem

While I like Obama a lot and will certainly vote for him, believing that he will be a welcome relief from the disaster that the Republican Party has visited upon our land, there are some issues where I still find him lacking. Take health care, for example. I've thought for some time that the real problem we face in health care is controlling the costs. Robert Samuelson, in today's Washington Post, agrees.

The central health-care problem is not improving coverage. It's controlling costs. In 1960, health care accounted for $1 of every $20 spent in the U.S. economy; now that's $1 of every $6, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that it could be $1 of every $4 by 2025. Ponder that: a quarter of the U.S. economy devoted to health care. Would we be better off? Probably not.

The current path we are on with health care is not sustainable economically. Simply going with some kind of universal plan will not solve the issue of costs, it may just bankrupt us as a nation more quickly.

Other industrialized nations with universal health care systems have somehow gotten ahold of the cost issue, and consequently they are spending much less per capita than we. But I'm not sure that our paralyzed political system can control costs; its too politically painful.

Whether Obama knows this or not is unclear. I tend to think he does, but just can't say anything. Whether he would govern differently than he is campaigning is also unclear. But I hope we get a chance to find out.