Pabst

The only thing worse than a horse designed by a committee might be a horse designed by a Congressional committee.

A few days ago, I suggested a “Blue Ribbon Panel” of experts to design, more or less from the ground up, a new system of paying for health care with the goals of “preserving quality, controlling costs, and covering everybody.” I now nominate Dr. Arthur Feldman, who has a column in today’s Washington Post, to serve on that committee. You can read his column here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/04/AR2009090402274.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST2009090702562

Feldman might not have it all right, but he represents an essential point of view in the debate, and sitting together at a table with a dozen or so other experts with different perspectives, I’m confident such a panel could devise and design an excellent new health care system in one year.

The report and recommendations that come from such a committee would then become the President’s proposal for health care reform, and I’m convinced Obama could bring enormous pressure on Congress to pass it. In this way, the initial bill that goes before Congress for debate is designed not by politicians whose agendas are tied up in party politics and the need to get reelected, but by representatives of true stake-holders whose agenda is to design a health care system that might truly be called “the best in the world.”