US health"Exploited For Political Gain"

One reason why US lawmakers on either side of the political spectrum cannot make any changes to the health care system is that both sides exploit health care for political gain, say policy analysts. While the trillion-dollar health care industry does affect economic life throughout the country, the debate over health care has turned into one about the free market vs government intervention, states' rights vs a centralized government and the rights of the individual vs the collective social conscience.

There are fundamental philosophical differences underlying a general vision of the direction in which one wants to go, said conservative Heritage Foundation analyst Robert Moffitt; even small changes involve billions of dollars and can tilt policy toward the free market or government regulation. Even incrementalism is controversial, said ex-Clinton aide Judith Feder, now with Georgetown University, as it affects how insurers operate and what patients pay; ie the stall in the passage of the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill (see story this page). And, said Tom Scully, a former Bush White House official who is now head of a major for-profit hospital trade group, one technical change to Medicare such as formula-driven overpayment for outpatient care costs $32 million, or seven times all the cuts in the farm bill.

Health reform A"Quasi-Religious Experience" Uwe Reinhart of Princeton University said that as some 12 million jobs are dependent on health care, "it makes people in general nervous." He dubbed health reform a "quasi-religious experience."