I'm frankly not sure. Is this a desperate last second throw to the end zone? If I were pressed to render a judgment I guess that I'd have to say that it is. Let's digress, no substantive bill will pass Congress without the complicity of the Senate, yet the House bill has absolutely no chance of passing the Senate. So why does the Administration decide to weigh in at this moment.
I'm a little lost, is this Administration, which so capably managed the Presidential campaign, unable to recognize the minefield that they have stumbled into? Does anyone above the age of 25 really believe that any plan that our federal government enacts can actually bend the cost curve. Please, put aside all the crazy talk surrounding this debate.
Health care is 16-17% of our economy albeit with poor results relative to the world (i.e., child mortality, neo-natal care etc.). Put aside that our critical care medicine is without peer, that is where our competitive advantage lies. The level of medical costs is clearly detrimental to the overall economy, but can the government cure it. My 46 years on this planet leave me with a jaundiced view. Maybe it could happen and it certainly is worthy of Congressional and Presidential attention, but the House bill is a train wreck.
We're going to save $50 billion on fraud and abuse in Medicare. If so, why are we waiting to pass a bill to realize that savings. That mere proposal of the foregoing shows its insanity. The House bill is a testimony to bureaucracy not to added efficiency, how does the Administration feel that this represents our best answer to a clearly vexing problem. I am disappointed that the President's advisers have apparently told him that this is the best he can hope for. I don't pretend to know the answer, but I'm confident that the House bill ain't it.
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