For those interested in the health care reform debate

[LA Ute]

Here's an op-ed by the dean of Harvard Medical School. He thinks both sides of the current debate have it all wrong. I tend to agree with him.

Speeches and news reports can lead you to believe that proposed congressional legislation would tackle the problems of cost, access and quality. But that's not true. The various bills do deal with access by expanding Medicaid and mandating subsidized insurance at substantial cost—and thus addresses an important social goal. However, there are no provisions to substantively control the growth of costs or raise the quality of care. So the overall effort will fail to qualify as reform. . . .

So the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.

We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead.

[venkman]

Let's see, we have a massive new bureaucracy, individual and insurance company mandates, tax increases, etc. This will lead to much higher health care costs, driving more and more people to the arms of a government solution. The 'actual road ahead' is a single payer socialized medical system.