Healthcare and Supercommittee

Robert J. Samuelson wrote in his column for the Washington Post (11/27) that the supercommittee was doomed to failure from its outset, as it lacked the time and staffing it would take "to solve a problem as contentious and complex as health care," which lies at the center of US spending problems. Samuelson highlighted a new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris that he said settles the debate over which the high cost of healthcare in the US brings with it the best healthcare in the world: "It's not true." The only way to avoid continued runaway healthcare spending, Samuelson said, would be to act in the form of a voucher system or a single-payer option.