STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 22 April 2013 -- Earth Day

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20. We still have a health-care spending problem

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-still-have-a-health-care-spending-problem/2013/04/21/2e105bbc-a854-11e2-8302-3c7e0ea97057_story.html

With every new report about the recent slowdown in health-care spending there is speculation in the media that the problem of rising health costs has somehow been solved or cut down to size.

We have seen this movie before. On a number of occasions in the past several decades we have been led to believe that the challenge of containing the growth in health-care costs has been met. In the mid-1990s, it was the managed-care revolution. That was followed by the managed-care backlash, when the trend line for health-care costs headed back up.

The idea that we have licked the problem of health-care cost increases is no more probable today than it was in the past.

Our nation has made no fundamental change in how health care is paid for or delivered.

Congress has not passed sweeping legislation to contain health costs, although it did make inroads into moderating the growth in Medicare and health-insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare, as it is sometimes known). Increases in Medicare payments to insurance companies, hospitals and other health-care providers are getting trimmed. And the law is fostering a number of small-scale experiments around the country that are showing promise in delivering health care more efficiently. Big increases in insurance premiums for individuals and small businesses are now scrutinized by federal and state officials, and insurers are required to provide rebates if their administrative overhead and profits are too high.