Consensus typically points to Medicare and argues five, maybe ten years. Real reform (the kind that truly transforms the industry), folks continue, won't happen until the current system hurtles headfirst into the wall. All other policy action is too watered-down, too constituent-wary.
Fast forward to last weekend (August 5th). Calling a spade a spade in political ineptitude, Standard & Poor's finally published its historic downgrade of US long-term debt. Symbolic, perhaps, but not without considerable consequence.
Yet again, as giant global banks reel, we confront the systemic challenge of too-big-to-fail, painfully realizing that lawmakers and regulators had done nothing to contain its malignancy.
But the fear this time that policymakers have nothing left—no more QEs, exorbitant stimulus packages, or magic bullets—in fact gives 2011 a certain hope that did not exist in 2008.
This time, we might just have to bite the bullet and reconsider how the whole damned system works, from tax law to entitlements.
As no time before, this new reality stands up—like a brick wall—against the great unfunded onslaught of government health care.
What degree and what duration of pain, then, are policymakers willing to exert on the electorate before taking action? Trillions more in stock market losses? Days, weeks, or even months of deliberations?
The sooner the better, we say. Any longer, and the shattered brick wall might just bury us.
1 comments:
Well said Syd.
It is interesting to ponder for a moment what a systemic health care financial crisis actually looks like in the real world. I think many people including in medicine have this idea that somehow people are all of a sudden not going to get medical care. Actually, that is likely not the case (at least initially). The actual face of a health care financing crisis would I think be manifest as a bond crisis...
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