Yesterday, Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) shared his outlook for repealing and replacing Obamacare. Ryan pointed out that rising health care costs not only make insurance unaffordable for many Americans; they are also a main driver of growing federal deficits. As medical inflation pushes the cost of insurance and medical goods and services sky high, the cost to taxpayers of Medicare, Medicaid, and the new open-ended entitlements created in Obamacare goes up as well. Adequately addressing rising costs will require pinpointing the root causes of medical inflation. Ryan defined these as …
Reporters pressed health care policy experts to address that question at a health reform panel in light of White House senior advisor David Axelrod’s assertions that President Barack Obama’s joint session next week will lay out a health care overhaul that could forgo the contentious government-run insurance option. For Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project Hope, the public option is “clearly” not dead. “It is the most contentious issue and unfortunately the administration has dug itself [into a difficult situation] by having the public plan become a prized position …
