As I was getting back to work, I had one more thought worth sharing.
While I take issue with the pretty huge assumptions in AHIP’s commissioned report, that doesn’t mean that they are completely wrong, either. While it’s unlikely that the incentives encoded into the Senate Finance Bill will fail completely, it’s also unlikely they will succeed completely.
I have said, and will say again, that the flaw in the fragmented way we are approaching health care reform is that it’s going to cost a lot of money. I don’t think those who point that out, and say it may cost more than we think, are necessarily wrong. I also don’t think the bill does enough to contain costs. As such, we are increasing access, but in a pretty inefficient way.
AHIP’s claims may go too far, and their statistics may be a bit overstated, but their sentiment isn’t totally wrong. When you increase access by buying more people private insurance, costs will go up. When you keep compromising on issues that are intended to reduce costs, costs will go up. When you are politically unable to confront the realities of soaring costs in health care, then – yes – costs will continue to go up.
