An AP article carried by the NY Times covered Ben Bernanke's testimony at a summit on health care reform organized by the Senate Finance Committee on June 16, 2008, in Washington, D.C. It begins:
Bolstering the performance of the health care system is one of the biggest challenges facing the country, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Monday.
New medical technologies and treatments are allowing people to live healthier, longer and more productive lives. However, the aging of millions of baby boomers coupled with rapidly rising heath care costs are accounting for an ever-growing share of both personal and government budgets – strains that will become increasingly burdensome unless changes are made, the Fed chief said.
Challenges, he said, fall into three major areas: improving access to health care for the 47 million Americans - or about 16 percent of the population – who lack health insurance; bolstering the quality of care; and controlling costs.
"Improving the performance of our health care system is without a doubt one of the most important challenges our nation faces," Mr. Bernanke said in remarks on health care changes organized by a Senate panel on Capitol Hill.
Read the entire article here.
I was about to post the same article. It's refreshing to hear this: At the end of the day, Democrats and Republicans appeared to agree on this much: All Americans should be insured, but they should have a choice of private health plans competing in the market alongside government programs. While some may quibble and want pure single payer, this is a big step ahead of Bush/McCain ideas. Now if we could just get someone besides the Intel CEO to talk about inefficiency and pay for performance.