Why Does Fred Hiatt Say That Democrats Are Opposed to Giving Less Money to Drug Companies and Overpaid Medical Specialists?

For some reason Fred Hiatt thinks (or at least says) that Democrats are opposed to cutting the excessive payments that our health care system makes to many providers. In yet another column bemoaning the budget deficit, Hiatt told readers:

"Revenue will have to go up, and the rising arc of health care and pension spending will have to be bent down. Democrats hate the latter, Republicans hate the former, and voters don’t like either."

While Democrats and Republicans (the voters, if not the politicians) hate the idea of cutting Social Security, it is not obvious that either group is opposed to eliminating the enormous waste in our health care system. The United States pays more than twice as much per person for its health care than other wealthy countries. If health care costs in the United States were comparable to those in other wealthy countries we would be looking at long-term budget surpluses not deficits. Fixing our health care system would seem an obvious way to go address the projections of large long-term deficits.

Remarkably, Hiatt never mentions that large deficits that the country is currently experiencing are entirely the result of the economic collapse in 2008. Prior to the collapse the country was experiencing modest deficits and was projected to continue to see modest deficits for the foreseeable future.

This column also wrongly refers to a report of the Bowles-Simpson commission. In fact, the commission did not issue a report because no proposal received support of the necessary majority to be approved by the commission. The report to which the column refers is simply the report of the co-chairs, former senator Alan Simpson and former Morgan Stanley director Erskine Bowles.

There's a reason...
written by Richard, June 04, 2012 5:29

he is often known as FFFH (Fact Free Fred Hiatt)

delete the title form for comments
written by jerry, June 04, 2012 7:40

Coming out of the gate strong from vacation eh? I know you advocate more competition among doctors and changes to drug patent legislation on the provider side of the equation, but what do you propose for the insurer side of the healthcare mess? I'd be interested to read some studies from CEPR regarding the medical monopoly in providers as well as insurers, and your proposed solutions to those issues.

what will happen between now & november?
written by mel in oregon, June 04, 2012 2:27

well we can be sure that the supreme court may change things by the end of june. we can also be aware that romney stands a good chance of beating obama in nov. there are several factors involved not the least of which is the great amount of money poring into romney from wallstreet & the billionaires, as well as the conservative measures underway to deny as many as 5 million voters the right to vote. the news that employment is growing was shown to be nonsense with the unemployment rate rising to 8.2%. the djia dropped 275 points the next day (friday, 6-1). my opinion is obama's goose is cooked. so the question is what will romney do? the answer is he will retain bush taxcuts, lower capital gains, increase the threshhold on inheritance taxes to $5-10 million, & vastly increase military spending. he will also cut down some on medicare & social security spending as well as push through legislation to further water down regulation of wallstreet & outsourcing corporations. he will basically outhoover hoover. and with europe in a huge mess as merkel follows a path margaret thatcher (her idol) approves, things don't look to get any better here or anywhere except possibly, china, russia, & south america. as far as healthcare in america, it will only get worse regardless of which corporate apologist wins in 5 months. we will be less competitive than ever. now is a good time to be very elderly.

Why Does Fred Hiatt Say That Democrats Are Opposed to Giving Less Money to Drug Companies and Overpaid Medical Specialists?

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