–But Dem Chairman, GOP Ranking Member Clash On How To Fix Programs
–Senate Budget Committee Chairman Conrad: Should Build On 2010 Law
–Sen. Conrad: ‘Imperative’ To Contral Growth of Health Care Costs
–Sen. Sessions: Obama Health Law Disguises Massive Costs

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad and
Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the panel, agreed
Wednesday that controlling the future growth of federal health care
programs is one of the nation’s paramount fiscal challenges, but they
disagreed sharply on how to begin this effort.

In a Senate Budget Committee hearing on health care expenditures,
Conrad and Sessions agreed on the need for future health care spending
savings, but differed on how this effort should deal with the sweeping
health care reform law of 2010.

Conrad said this new law, while imperfect, should serve as the
basis for additional reforms. He said the law includes scores of pilot
projects that might yield substantial long-term savings.

“We put virtually every one of these ideas into health care
reform,” Conrad said.

He said that policymakers solicited ideas from a wide array of
experts on how to make “critical delivery system reforms.” These reforms
should yield cost savings in the future, he argued.

The cumulative effect of the health care law will be significant
long-term budget savings, Conrad said.

“Reversing health care reform would be costly,” said Conrad,
arguing that the long-term cost of repealing the law would be more than
$1 trillion.

But the Senate Budget Committee Chairman said additional reforms
are needed, adding that it is “absolutely imperative” that steps be
taken to prevent federal health care programs from growing to 13% of
gross domestic product in 2050 as is projected by the Congressional
Budget Office.

Policymakers must “find additional health care savings,” Conrad
said, and cited a host of ideas that should be considered, including
changing the tax treatment of health care insurance.

Speaking next, Sessions disputed Conrad’s fiscal assessment of the
2010 health care reform law, charging that the law is hugely expensive
and that many of its costs are disguised by accounting gimmicks.

Sessions said the law will actually add more than $700 billion to
the deficit in the near term and far more over the next two decades.

“It adds to the deficit. It does not reduce the deficit,” Sessions
said of the new law.

“It did not change the cost curve, except to make the cost curve
worse,” Sessions said.

Sessions argued that repealing the 2010 law would be a good first
step in controlling the rise of federal health care costs.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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