Must Find A Way To Rein In Costs

While Barack Obama was talking to Kroger employees Wednesday afternoon, Democrats reached a needed health care reform breakthrough that meets the president’s chief goals – extending coverage to about 95 percent of Americans without increasing federal deficits.

A significant compromise is that a full vote on the measure won’t come until after the summer recess. That gives conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who had been blocking the bill, more time to consider the plan and opponents more time to tear it apart.

U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., leader of those conservative Democrats, told The Associated Press that an agreement addresses their concerns, including cutting the cost of the bill, protecting small businesses and ensuring that a public option is truly optional.

Meanwhile, in Bristol, Obama worked hard to explain the reasons health care reform is needed and to snuff out what he called scare tactics.

Skyrocketing costs are at the core of the need for reform, he stressed. The costs are increasing so fast that some companies cannot provide insurance at all. For others, costs are put back on employees, who must pick up higher out-of-pocket expenses. And if they lose their jobs, many cannot afford paying for their health insurance.

Obama said employer-based plans must continue; they are the backbone of the current system. Several town-hall participants asked why Medicare couldn’t be expanded to add the uninsured. The costs are too steep, Obama said, and employers would jump ship if they thought they could move their employees to a government-funded plan.

Instead, the reformed system would be patterned after the current congressional system and people could choose from various plans, with some receiving a subsidy to help with premiums. Having a large pool of people – some healthy and young, some older and sicker – would help hold costs down, the president said. Older Americans won’t be “put out to pasture,” as one woman feared, he said. And patients can still see their doctors, he maintained.

Still, with the compromise reached Wednesday with Senate Democrats, it’s obvious some changes are in store for the health care reform bill. Yet one portion of Obama’s remarks resonated with the audience and with this newspaper’s editorial board. It will hold true, no matter whether subsidies are cut from the bill, how small business is defined or whether the cost is cut even further:

We have to find a way to reduce health care costs that are strangling us.

Health care costs are increasing so sharply for employers that wages have been flat for about 10 years. So if you wonder where your raise has been going, if you are lucky enough to have a job, it has likely been keeping you and your family insured.

But in America we don’t believe workers should have to choose between the two. Reform is needed so workers can get good medical coverage and annual raises – the foundation for improvement for all families.

And because costs have been rising so steeply, Medicare – the government plan for people age 65 and older – will be in the red in eight years. Something must be done to address this shortfall for millions of Americans who use this government program. It is part of the need for overall health care reform, and a government plan, which has been debated for more than 45 years.

Certainly the costs are staggering – possibly $1 trillion over 10 years. Obama vows that with existing health subsidies factored in, the cost will be $30 billion to $40 billion a year – or less than the Iraq war each year.

We are pleased to see the Blue Dogs reach compromise and hope this means real progress will be reached on health care reform. On Wednesday, the House Republicans unveiled their own $700 billion health care plan that would offer tax credits to help buy insurance, but wouldn’t require individuals or employers to get coverage.

With Republicans out of power, there’s little likelihood their proposal will move forward. Would it be too much to ask for some reasoned Republican voices to negotiate with Democrats now that there is extra time to do so?