(the) Health Savings Accounts Blog

A new report issued by the CBO indicates Obama’s health care reform plans may cost as much as $1.2 trillion through 2010 and still not result in viable savings.

Some of the main findings include:

• Rising health care costs “pose a serious threat” to the economy, but some of the more popular cost-control policies promoted by lawmakers will do little to help
• unless changes are made, the USA will spend 25% of its total economy on health care by 2025, up from about 16% now
• the number of uninsured could jump 20% in 10 years, up from about 45 million in 2009 to 54 million
• some plans promoted by President-elect Barack Obama and many other lawmakers such as wide adoption of electronic health records and better preventive care could improve health but would likely result in only modest savings or even increase the federal government’s costs over 10 years

If we really want to cut the cost of healthcare, according to the CBO, the key, number one thing that must happen is:

• reduce payments to doctors, hospitals and other medical providers — this could save hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years

“By far, the biggest savings are cutting what we pay to people in the health care system. Everything else is really small,” says Robert Laszewski, a health policy consultant and former insurance industry executive”

In other words, we need to pay physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers — LIKE SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Now, why didn’t I think of that?