A bill to overhaul the nation's ailing health care system must avoid additional spending now, and also lower costs down the road, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday
Many middle-class Americans would still struggle to pay for health insurance despite efforts by President Barack Obama and Democrats to make coverage more affordable.
Greenspan told the ABC program 'This Week' that the federal debt was already getting too big, so reforming health care must do more than achieve what politicians call revenue neutrality — bringing in as much money as it costs.
Because health insurance is so expensive, lawmakers recognize that if they're going to pass a law requiring all Americans to get coverage, government has to defray the cost. The size of those subsidies makes an enormous difference.
Americans actually see doctors and stay in the hospital less than residents of other industrialized countries, they say. Our costs are high for a constellation of reasons involving relatively uncontrolled prices, insurance that masks real costs from consumers, heavy use of technology, wide variations in...
revenue neutral is not adequate. … In other words, we have to not only have a revenue neutral reform program, but simultaneously recognize that we have to address the longer term.
Industry experts see a much more complicated picture