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May 12, 2009

Health Providers Offer Few Details on Plan to Cut Costs by $2 Trillion
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In Washington, President Obama met with a coalition of US health groups
Monday after the groups pledged to cut rising health costs by $2
trillion over the next decade. The coalition representing doctors,
hospitals, drug manufacturers, insurers and laborers had agreed to help
reduce the rise in healthcare costs by 1.5 percentage points per year
for ten years. None of the groups offered detailed specifics on how they
would pare down costs. Single-payer advocate Kevin Zeese criticized the
plan. He said, "The voluntary plan is a promise that can’t be enforced,
and they’re talking about a 20 percent decrease in the expansion. That
still means projected increases of nearly $2 trillion over the next ten
years.” Zeese was arrested last week at a Senate Finance Committee
hearing while protesting the committee’s exclusion of any advocates for
single payer or Medicare-for-all. The Senate Finance Committee will hold
another hearing on healthcare reform today. Committee chair Max Baucus
has not invited any single-payer advocates to testify.



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