Depending on hospitals and insurance companies to control costs without citizen participation and oversight is like depending on private London-based banks to set fair, honest LIBOR interest rates (“State poised to curb health spending,” Page A1, July 31). The kinds of controls and oversight recommended by the state’s new health-cost bill are not perfect, but we have to start moving away from the model that has led us to the brink of disaster.
I think of this legislation as “healthy sausage,” the product of a variety of interests shaped by Representative Steven Walsh (no relation) and his legislative associates with the public interest in mind.
Personally, I prefer the single-payer model, and lament the loss of the public-option compromise. But I hope this legislation will outline a playing field where the institutions involved can work creatively to find better answers to health care issues than we’ve found up to now.