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Proposal's Cost Savings Seem to Be Elusive (JANET ADAMY, 9/17/09, WSJ)

The latest health bill to emerge from the Senate contains a slew of measures designed to control costs. But it would be years before they kick in, and many may only put a dent in spending. [...]

"To be incremental in the cost-savings approach and to attempt to be universal in the [insurance] coverage seems to be putting the sweetener ahead of the savings," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan budget watchdog group.

The insurance industry also argues that Sen. Baucus's bill doesn't go far enough to reduce costs. They say the new tax on generous health plans would get passed on to consumers, even though it would be levied on insurance companies. "That's the wrong end of the spectrum to start the cost-containment domino," said Karen Ignagni, chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry lobbying group.

Obviously the President has no life experiences nor educational background to prepare him to deal with economics, but all that's required here is that he apply in one area the ideas he's applying in another, just in reverse.

Mr. Obama believes that open competition has lowered the price of tires too far, so he's intervening to raise the costs of cheap ones and artificially hike costs through government mechanisms. So, to lower health care costs you would just reverse that, foster free market competition and withdraw some government interference.

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Health Reform’s Missing Ingredient (RON WYDEN, 9/17/09, NY Times)

“MY guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition,” President Obama said last week in an address to Congress on health care reform. It’s a good principle, one that may determine the ultimate success or failure of reform, but unfortunately it’s not really guiding the Senate bill unveiled on Wednesday or any of the other health reform legislation now under consideration in Congress.

Under the nation’s current employer-based system, most people have little if any choice about where they get their insurance. They just have to accept the plan that comes with their job. That insurance company, in turn, is provided a captive group of customers, so it has no incentive to earn their loyalty.

Empowering Americans to choose from a broad selection of health plans would turn the tables. Those insurers that charged affordable rates and provided good coverage would attract more customers, while those that treated customers badly would be forced to change their ways or go out of business. To stay competitive, insurers would need to follow the example of places like the Mayo Clinic and offer good, low-cost coverage.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 17, 2009 7:20 AM