There is no health-care reform package on the table yet. Samuelson is a smart guy, and surely has some ideas for what real reform might look like. Instead, he criticizes what he guesses will be in Obama's proposal.

Some of the arguments here would be more reasonable if they weren't framed so poorly. This is mostly speculative of the health care reform bill, which is still being developed.

Controversial, but well reasoned opinion about the health care reform packages under discussion in Congress. The author argues that current proposals do not address the core issues needed to reduce the overall costs of health care -- which have been growing from 5% of the economy (GDP) in 1960 to 18% now and could reach 35% by 2040, according to Obama's Council of Economic Advisors. The author recommends that Congress focus on legislation that could 'overhaul fee-for-service payment ... More »

A criticism of Obama's approach to health care reform. Samuelson's critique doesn't come off as ideological, but is in fact rather rational. Unfortunately, he doesn't go into his own proposal to control costs starting with Medicare, so we're left with no alternative plan to compare.