Cost Control — Time to Get Serious | Health Care Reform 2009

Daniel Callahan, Ph.D. Although everyone seems to agree that controlling health care costs is no less critical a need than improving access to health care, the evidence suggests that cost control is not being seriously confronted. The pertinent committees in Congress, as well as key government agencies, are still flitting around the edge of tough proposals, evading the enormous difficulties of managing costs. Consider the first shot across the bow of serious cost reform, conveyed in an April 29, 2009, report of the Senate Finance Committee. Comparative-effectiveness research, it said, is a fine idea, but whatever “entity” carries it out “should be prohibited from issuing medical practice recommendations or from making reimbursement or coverage decisions or recommendations.” Not even recommendations? Just throw the raw data out the window and hope for the best? Read More