As America continues to struggle to pull out of our current economic recession, the need to reform our national health care system becomes more and more essential to the sustained fiscal health of our national and local economies.  In 2007, the United States spent approximately $2.2 Trillion dollars on health care, which translates to roughly a 16% share of our gross domestic product (GDP). Health care spending is not just a long-term federal budget issue; rising health care premiums, costs of services, and high deductibles are rapidly and covertly bankrupting the middle class. In 2007, at least 62% of all personal bankruptcies in America were linked to illness and medical debt, although roughly three quarters of these individuals had health insurance, were college educated, and owned homes.

To say that cost control and savings policies should be essential aspects of health legislation is a gross understatement. Given the financial stakehold that health care has in our economy, significant cost control and savings policies MUST be apart of health legislation. However, a Washington Post article indicated yesterday that many experts fear that the House and Senate health care bills are too timid on cutting costs and broader changes are needed.

Here are a couple of the concerns highlighted in the article:

-- A Senate plan to tax high-priced insurance policies saves far less money -- and is less likely to change medical consumption -- than eliminating the tax exemption for employer-sponsored coverage.

-- Proposals on comparative-effectiveness research and a new Medicare cost-cutting commission have been watered down.

-- An array of Medicare pilot projects aimed at paying doctors and hospitals for quality rather than quantity would take years to be implemented nationally -- if they ever were.

-- None of the bills addresses medical liability, even though the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that tort reform could save $54 billion over the next decade.

In May, Obama and Health Care Industry leaders promoted policies that were estimated to save $2 trillion dollars in health care spending, but only a few of these policies, such as streamlining insurance claims forms have been included in legislation.

Many critics of pending health care legislation sing the same tune: they fundamentally endorse the ideas included but warn reforms fall short of the cost savings possible and that pilot projects may take too long to adopt broadly and may not achieve the cost savings needed.

Hope Street Group feels strongly that for health care reform legislation to be successful, it is imperative that legislation reforms the system to be both fiscally responsible and sustainable, with changes to the health care delivery system designed to reduce system wide future health care cost growth, including federal and state government programs.

Interested in reading the full Washington Post Article? You can find it here.