Wall Street Journal Examines Issues Likely To Face Presidential Winner
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined the "most potent strategy" that the next president could take to address "longer-term problems that defy the sound-bite solutions of stump speeches," such as Medicare reform, increased health care costs, and other issues. According to the Journal, "Restraining the rising cost of Medicare ... while coping with new health care technologies and an aging population" is "complicated" because "Medicare's problems are intertwined with the broader health care system." In addition, the next president "will find little consensus about workable, affordable and politically acceptable solutions" to the issues of increased health care costs and patient dissatisfaction over the U.S. health care system, the Journal reports.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said, "There is no clean solution" to such issues. He added, "First we have to answer: Why do health costs grow on a sustained basis more rapidly than the economy? Is it worth it? Are we getting our money's worth? After that, there is the financing issue: How to distribute those costs in a way that doesn't disrupt the economy and still provides a catastrophic backdrop" (Wessel/Davis, Wall Street Journal, 11/3).