Healthcare Reform to Reduce Deficit?
I guess I’m just getting dense from information overload about healthcare reform, but I just can’t get my mind around how piling on all the additional costs of healthcare reform is going to reduce the deficit.
First we heard that improving efficiency in healthcare was going to pay for the added cost of the government’s new plan, but that is not going to happen according to the Administration’s major healthcare advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, MD. Here is what he had to say about healthcare savings:
“Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely ‘lipstick’ cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change.” (Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, Health Affairs, February 27, 2008)
We haven’t heard much about savings from increased efficiency for some time now, so where does this deficit reduction come from? A $1 Trillion reduction in the deficit over the first 10 years of the plan…after spending about $1 Trillion in added healthcare costs?
I am in favor of healthcare reform generally, but I don’t understand how the current plan will reduce the deficit…I guess I have a mental block on this…maybe I can’t see the trees for the forest. Could someone please explain this to me?
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