Monday, March 14, 2005

Medicaid in the Cross Hairs New York Times editorial - "Everyone seems to be howling about the cost of Medicaid, and no wonder. Spending on the health care program for the poor has been exploding, up from about $200 billion in 2000 to more than $300 billion at last count. State governments, which share the costs with the federal government, were hit with the bill just as the economic downturn hit their revenues. And the Bush administration, awash in red ink, wants to cut costs. The biggest problem with Medicaid is that it has been deputized to do a lot of jobs it wasn't originally created for. Intended as a health insurance program for families on welfare and people with disabilities, Medicaid has gradually been stretched to cover for Congress's failure to deal with the millions of low-income American workers without health insurance, and the refusal of Medicare to pay for long-term nursing home care for the elderly." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

The Quality Cure? New York Times Magazine story on David Cutler, whose "diagnosis has shaken up the health-care-policy world. 'The real reason health-care reform has not succeeded,'' he has written, 'is that it is rooted in a misconception of what health-care reform should accomplish.' ... He says that most health-care spending is actually good. Spending has been rising, he says, because it delivers positive, and measurable, economic value, and because it can do more things that Americans want. Therefore, Cutler says, we should focus on improving the quality of care rather than on reducing our consumption of it. Rather than pay less, he wants to pay more wisely -- to encourage health-care providers to do more of what they should and less of what is wasteful." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].