Would a systemwide approach for reforming health care costs work better than piecemeal approaches that targets specific treatments?
A. The problem is it takes time to do this correctly, and I don’t think you can do it in one fell swoop. But you can say, ‘Here are the 10 things we’re going to do right now.’ If Medicare stopped paying for arthroscopic surgery of the knee, I guarantee you we’d see those surgeries go down immediately. Q. Is there political will to truly reform the health care industry? A. It’s going to be a tough road. I think (former South Dakota Sen.) Tom Daschle had the right concept with his federal health board — take the decision-making out of the hands of Congress. Lobbying is too much of a factor. The Obama administration has not provided much detail on how they plan to rein in costs. Mechanisms that have been discussed as cost-cutting approaches, such as adoption of electronic medical records, will result in only minimal savings. Q. What are the potential ramifications if the government establishes a public plan similar to Medicare that individuals could buy into? A. First, it’s not clear who
