Slouching Towards Oblivion

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ezra Klein - WaPo

Klein's piece in The Washington Post

Some things that really stand out:
"The average health-care coverage for the average family now costs $13,375, according to Kaiser. Over the past decade, premiums have increased by 138 percent. And if the trend continues, by 2019 the average family plan will cost $30,083."

"Melinda Beeuwkes Buntin, a researcher at the Rand Corporation, and David Cutler, a health economist at Harvard, recently estimated the savings that could be attained by "modernizing" the system over the next 10 years. The changes they examined weren't dramatic. Replacing paper records with computerized files, making it easier for people to comparison-shop across insurers, "bundling" payments for the treatment of a single illness rather than shelling out separately for each doctor visit -- that sort of thing. Added up, they equaled a startling $2 trillion over 10 years. That's a lot of money for policies that have received virtually no attention in the debate."

I think this as a 2-part problem and we have to try fixing one part at a time. 
Part One = the cost of Insurance
Part Two = the cost of Care

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