Scientific American on Health Care

I love Scientific American for two reasons. One, it is amazing to see new advances - or theories - in science as they are unfolding. Two, in appropriate situations, they weigh in on policy and politics. When they do, I trust them because, more than anyone else, I feel they are free from ideology and base recommendations on science and data.

In this month's issue, they write about health care and what needs to be done to control costs. Here is what they say about Obamacare and Paul Ryan's plan:

Politicians have acknowledged the crippling cost of medicine, yet their proposals do little to fix these basic flaws. For instance, replacing Medicare benefits with vouchers that individuals can use to buy their own health insurance, as was recently proposed by House Committee on the Budget Chair Paul Ryan, merely shifts more of the financial burden to private citizens. And most of the cost-saving initiatives found in the Affordable Care Act are demonstration projects—not large-scale reforms. The factors that inflate health costs must be addressed widely and directly. Fortunately, promising solutions are beginning to emerge:

What they recommend is not particularly new, but they give these proposals more credibility: reduce fragmentation, phase out fee-for-service, and compare effectiveness of procedures.

Now, if we are really going to compare Obama v. Ryan, we would acknowledge that Obamacare does this stuff, albeit slowly, and Ryan's doesn't at all. But it is good to see the scientific community weighing in. And it is good to see that they support Democratic plans - although they clearly think they need to be more ambitious.