http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07tue1.html?ref=opinionIf health care reform falls apart again in Congress, the most likely cause will be failure to agree on how to subsidize coverage for tens of millions of uninsured Americans. The cost will almost certainly be at least $1 trillion over the next decade and perhaps much more, depending on how generous the reform might be.
President Obama is right to insist that reform be fully paid for over the next decade lest it drive up the federal deficit and lead to higher interest rates that might deepen the recession. That means either cutting spending or raising additional money.
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has decreed that reform must be financed entirely by savings or revenues within the health care system. He believes that that would force greater efficiencies from a notoriously wasteful enterprise. Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the Democrat who is chairman of the committee, seems inclined to accept that notion to win Republican votes for a filibuster-proof majority.
Our preference would be to extract savings from the bloated, inefficient health care system — but also to raise revenues from a wider pool, preferably from well-to-do Americans who could be taxed more for a badly needed reform that would benefit all Americans.