Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Brookings Institute Experts way in on Healthcare

September 1, 2009, 2:21 pm

A Bipartisan Proposal on Health Care Costs

How many economists does it take to fix the United States health care system?

Dr. Mark McClellan, a former Medicare administrator under President George W. Bush, who is now a health policy expert at the Brookings Institution, convened 10 experts of varying political persuasions to propose the best ways of bringing the nation’s high medical costs under control, while also raising the quality of care. The group ranged from free-market thinkers like Joseph R. Antos of the American Enterprise Institute to the Democratic policy adviser David M. Cutler from Harvard.

Dr. McClellan said the group, which released its report Tuesday, tried to reach a bipartisan consensus about the gradual steps that could be taken to move the country in the right direction. They say that any legislation should support long-term changes, rather than short-term fixes like slashing Medicare payments.

The ideas include taxing sugary beverages as a way to promote personal health, establishing health insurance exchanges to make it easier for individuals to buy insurance and reducing the current tax subsidies for employer-provided health insurance. Dr. McClellan said the proposals were intended as part of a comprehensive overhaul rather than a set of discrete suggestions.

“These steps are about accountability and support for what we really want — better care at a lower cost,” Dr. McClellan said.

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