The New Health Dialogue

Atul Gawande’s most recent New Yorker piece talks about reform, and the overhaul of a big, complicated system that is essential to American life. Critics called it a government takeover. But ultimately, a combination of innovative pilot programs and government regulation brought down skyrocketing costs and increased quality.

The system in question? Agriculture.

As the Senate continues its historic debate of health reform, here’s a look back at the weekend’s action and look forward at what’s to come. As always, you can follow the debate live with us on Twitter (hashtag: #senatedebate)

The following op-ed originally appeared in Sunday's Denver Post.

Coloradans cannot turn on the television without coming face to face with the health care reform debate in Washington. But with so many conflicting messages from different interest groups, it is hard to know what to believe.

Over the past year, the New America Foundation, along with the Center for Colorado's Economic Future at the University of Denver, conducted a study called The Future of Colorado Health Care. Its purpose was to make sense of the chatter and to answer one fundamental question: Do the economic benefits of health care reform in Colorado outweigh the costs? The answer, we determined, is yes.

On Wednesday, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag struck back at claims that the health reform legislation won't cut costs because Congress hasn't followed through on cost-cutting in the past and is unlikely to do so in the future. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities agrees with him, and published a detailed (but readable) compendium of successful Medicare cost-savings provisions going back more than 20 years -- and numerous provisions in the House and Senate health reform legislation that are likely to yield savings in the next 20 years.

The new CBPP report thoroughly rebuts critics who say the health reform bills do little to control costs, and goes into considerable detail on the recent history of cost-savings -- which makes them more confident about the future of cost-savings. Yes, Congress blocked some of the really steep Medicare pay cuts to doctors. But Congress never intended those cuts to be so deep in the first place. The formula was flawed.