In his October 25 column in the NYT Paul Krugman makes the case for health care reform and in part uses the Massachusetts experience as a model to expand coverage.  “He concludes that this thing is going to work.”

“This thing” presumably is the expansion of coverage to more Americans and in that he is probably right.

But shouldn’t this thing be actual reform of the health care, not the health insurance system?  Should we be seeking to truly reduce costs and lower the rate of future growth in costs while raising the quality and efficiency of health care?   While there is a great deal of rhetoric attributing quality and affordability to the various pieces of legislation, the truth is there is little of either.

Krugman got something else right in his assessment of the expansion of coverage effort in Massachusetts, as he said,  “And the Massachusetts plan hasn’t yet done anything significant to contain costs.”

Surprise, surprise

 

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