From the worst health care system... to merely a bad one...

RomneyCare is a step in the right direction but its not a magic bullet.  Talking Heads--and their Republican lackeys-- who opposed health care reform wanted to continue the unsustainable health care system (killing tens of thousands and further adding to the deficit in the process) are trying to now reframe the health care debate in a way claim supporters of reform can be proven wrong.... 

 

sigh....

 

 

Brad Delong on the utterly obvious:

Can Gergen point to a single Democrat who thinks that RomneyCare "has magically solved all our healthcare problems"? I don't know one, or know of one. The most that people are saying is that we have moved from having by far the worst health care financing system in the OECD to a health care financing system that is merely bad by the standards of the OECD...

Dean Baker things we can now get serious about health care costs and turn towards free market solutions...

 

The Passage of Health Care Reform: Time to Talk Seriously About Health Care

The passage of President Obama’s health care reform will make a difference in the lives of tens of millions of people. The subsidies will make insurance affordable to millions of families who could not pay the unsubsidized rate. More importantly, by prohibiting insurers from discriminating against people with serious health conditions, those who are currently covered will have real insurance for the first time. People will no longer have to worry that a serious illness will cause them to lose their job and then their insurance.

This is real progress, but the bill does little to change the fact that health care in the United States is ridiculously expensive and, if current trends continue, will grow more unaffordable through time. While many issues on controlling costs are complicated, some are very simple. At the top of the list is bringing the price of drugs, medical equipment and medical supplies down to their competitive market price.

Under the current system, patent monopolies allow drug companies and the manufacturing of medical equipment and supplies to charge prices that are often several thousand percent above the free market price. In the case of prescription drugs, the vast majority of drugs could be sold profitably as generics for just a few dollars per prescription, if there were no patent protection. Instead these drugs can sell for hundreds of dollars or even thousands of dollars per prescription.

The huge gap between the patent-protected price and the market price leads to the sort of corruption predicted by economic theory. Pharmaceutical companies mislead doctors and the public about the effectiveness and safety of the drug. They give kickbacks and even bribes to doctors for prescribing their drugs in addition to spending vast sums on marketing. And they spend a fortune lobbying Congress to get their patent monopolies extended and strengthened.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols for GA State House