I’ve been frustrated for some time by the “$1 trillion over 10 years” price tag that has been placed on federal health reform legislation. First, because it was an arbitrary number that entered the debate, and second, that it has been touted as a ‘line in the sand’ number that we, as Americans, cannot cross.
Congress has allocated more than $1 trillion in the past year to the mortgage/banking crisis, to bail out the automakers and for the federal stimulus package. And it’s unclear how much data was available before those pieces of legislation were passed, and it’s hard to know how the money has been spent since the legislation was passed.
It makes me recall JK using a quote about zeroes: “… a million seconds ago was last week; a billion seconds ago was around the time Nixon was leaving the White House; a trillion seconds ago was around 30,000 BC.”
The governor uses that quote to accentuate the level of our debt when it shifts from billions to trillions of dollars. But how many people noticed that the deficit this year has already passed $1 trillion? The notion of a trillion dollars still sounds like make believe to many people; it’s too hard to fathom a number so large. Hence, congress – from both parties – are trying to craft a reform bill that will be less than $1 trillion. Not because they believe we can do it for less, but because they are afraid of the connotation behind saying that something will cost more than a trillion dollars.
I’m waiting for someone in Congress or the President’s administration to say this: We can invest $1 trillion or more to transform how we improve the health of people in this nation, something we now spend more than $2.3 trillion annually on. And if done right, we will begin to recoup cost savings in the ensuing years. It is worth the investment.
We have gotten locked into arguing within a couple of message frames: first, that $1 trillion is more than we’ve ever spent on anything and we simply can’t afford it as a nation; and 2) that health reform shouldn’t cost that much to accomplish.
It’s worth spending public money on the nation’s greatest asset – its people. Moving our nation to one that takes care of people who are ill but also invests in our health is worth the effort. We have to try to stay out of the message traps and do what is best for this nation and its people.
For an interesting perspective on DC politics of health reform listen to this week’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. She interviewed Jonathan Cohn and it was fascinating.
Our job is to get our congressional delegation to remain focused on what must be done and be honest of what that will cost.
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