Dollars and Sense

Notes on Not so Hidden Costs

Jim O’Brien – 11/20/2009

How many citizens know that the stimulus package passed in February funds and defines the creation of a health care related council and health care technology committees.  Sec. 804 defines a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research of up to 15 members appointed by the President.  This council must be made up of individuals with experience or responsibility for health related programs.  Title XIII of the Stimulus Bill defines a Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee composed of 20 members (or more at the President’s discretion,) and a HIT Standards Committee with an undefined number of members.

With my limited wisdom it is hard to grasp how the inclusion of a council and two committees charged with health care related decisions and policy making will serve to stimulate the economy.  At the same time I am not surprised that such, non-stimulating provisions are found in the stimulus legislation given the disappointing job creation effects of the bill.  I wonder what tasks HIT committees and the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research will undertake if the Democrats fail to pass their health care reform monstrosity.

Why should anybody be surprised that health reform related amendments are attached to other bills that have little or nothing to do with such reform?  If Congress and the Obama administration can pass health care/insurance reform piecemeal via amendments and attachments to other bills they will reduce the costs associated with major health care reform legislation because cost will be hidden in other bills.  I believe that is the intent of putting the aforementioned council and committees in the stimulus bill.

Another way to reduce costs associated with reform is to put some $210 billion for doctor reimbursement into a separate bill.  Thus, whatever price tag the House, the Senate, or the CBO put on health care reform, add at least $210 billion.

Recently released guidelines for mammograms and pap smears fit nicely into government plans for health care cost reductions.   Some may choose to believe Secretary Sibelius’ statements that the government will not have to follow the new guidelines, but such belief would more appropriately be called a deadly assumption.  And I thought that preventative medicine was supposed to be one of the hallmarks of health care reform.