The United States pays more than twice as much per person for health care as other wealthy countries, with no obvious benefits in terms of outcome. President Obama has proposed a series of reforms, including more emphasis on prevention, in order to bring our costs more in line with the rest of the world. While this might seem a plausible route to those of us here on planet earth, the Washington Post tells us "no way." In a front page article it asserts that: "effective health reforms would take decades to produce savings." Hmm, if health care costs in the U.S. grow on their projected path, then we will be spending 3-4 times as much per person as people in other wealthy countries. The Post tells us that there is nothing we can do about that. It's great to have a newspaper that is so knowledgeable about the future. It's not quite as knowledgeable about the past. It told readers that Obama may break "his no-tax vow, the same political transgression that cost Democrats control of Congress under former president Bill Clinton." Actually, President Clinton did not make a no-tax vow. He said that he would raise taxes on the wealthy, and he did. It is also worth noting that all the budget experts interviewed in this piece (along with the Post itself) contributed to the creation of the country's debt problem, but refusing to note the enormous growth of the housing bubble. They dismissed efforts to call public attention to the bubble. The main reason for the explosion of the deficit is the slump created by the collapse of the bubble and the payment required to bail out bankrupt financial institutions. It is ironic that the Post would rely exclusively on experts whose analytic failings contributed hugely to the deficit problem about which they are complaining.
--Dean Baker
