The Washington Post Weighs In On Health Reform

The Washington Post editorial page took a strong position this morning on the role of a government-run health insurance option as part of healthcare reform.  Essentially, the Post asserted what a lot of us have been saying, that we are on the verge of achieving real, meaningful health reform and it would be a tragedy to squander this opportunity by going to war over controversial provisions that aren’t essential to expanding quality health coverage to all Americans.

I was particularly pleased to see the Post take note of the role private sector competition is playing within the Medicare Part D program in holding costs down.  In many ways, the Medicare prescription drug program provides some valuable lessons in how to create a structure that expands access to care while reining in costs.  As the Post noted…

While prescription drugs are not a perfect comparison, the experience of competing plans in the Medicare prescription drug arena suggests that a government-run option is not essential to energize a competitive system that has turned out to cost less than expected. Insurers and private companies have been at least as innovative as the federal government in recent years in finding ways to provide quality care at lower costs.

The debate over how to structure the health coverage marketplace is an important and necessary one, but the Post is right that we shouldn’t take a my-way-or-the-highway approach to controversial approaches that could hamper important reforms that are within our reach.