Policy

Will Reform Help Health Care?

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A Washington Post-ABC News poll from a couple of days ago has some pretty interesting findings about attitudes toward health care reform.

Among them:

Sixteen percent assume their care will get better if the system is changed while 31 percent figure it'll get worse. Half think it will stay the same.

Roughly 80 percent of respondents (plus or minus a few points depending on the specific questions) are very or somewhat concerned that health care reform will reduce quality of care and range of coverage while increasing costs and adding to the federal deficit. They think reform will limit choices of doctors and increase government bureaucracy.

About 45 percent of people are somewhat or very satisfied with the overall system, but over 80 percent are very or somewhat satisfied with their own care.

Much more here.

And in case you missed last night's ABC News health care confab with President Barack Obama, here's the sort of hardball questions and answers that were on display:

Orrin Devinsky of the NYU School of Medicine wondered if Obama would stick within the limits of government-issue insurance if his wife or one of his daughters was seriously ill and the plan didn't cover every possible treatment. Obama replied that he would want the "very best care"—but insisted the real issue was that the system is broken. "Understand that the status quo is untenable," he said.

One woman asked if someone like her 105-year-old mom would have care cut simply because of age limits. Obama said he didn't want that, but that "those decisions are already being made" based on costs and private insurance policies.

He also didn't answer directly who would set limits to care in a new system, or who would enforce them.

"If we are smart, we should be able to design a system in which people still have choices" and waste is reduced, he said.

More here.

My god, what's taken us so long to get such a brilliant solutionizer in the White House! He wants not just the best care for his family, but the "very best care." We can get choice and cut waste, if we are smart. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Courage and steel, Obama, courage and steel.