New benefits likely to prove costly

Buyer’s remorse shouldn’t have to come so soon.

A new study by economic experts in the Department of Health and Human Services has found what many feared about the recently passed health care bill: needed savings might not exist.

The new report estimated that, instead of costs going down, health care reform legislation would increase spending by $511 billion over the next 10 years. That would be a one percent increase instead of the downward bending of the cost curve most liberals were hoping for.

This may also turn out to be an optimistic scenario because it depends on cuts in Medicare that Congress will have to follow through on in the future. Most attempts to cut entitlements for older Americans have not gone anywhere.

Health care reform was passed primarily for two reasons: to extend coverage to all Americans and to contain costs that were spiraling out of control.

Supporters of the bill shouldn’t forget that this bill will largely succeed in extending coverage to every American, but it might not be  long before we have to deal with health care again to cope with rising costs.

President Barack Obama and other Democrats argued the law they passed would have a great deal of potential to generate savings. The report does point out that some cost-control measures, such as the tax on high-cost insurance, could create savings down the road, but it doesn’t see that as likely within the next decade.

For those who want reform to succeed, it is important to make sure Congress sticks with proposals such as the aforementioned tax, which doesn’t kick in for several years. Congress could also use the leverage of Medicare to try to change how health care is paid for. Currently, providers essentially receive payment based on how many tests they do, rather than results.

Making sure costs get under control will have to become a bipartisan effort if Republicans do well in 2010. Liberals need to keep real tort reform on the table.

For many conservatives, reports like this one prove this bill will bankrupt our country and that it was unjustly stuffed through Congress.

But they, too, will need to swallow their pride and accept that many of the new benefits will not be repealed (nor should they be). They must find ways to improve the current system’s efficiency.

In a few years, health care reform might dominate our political debate all over again.