Lack of health insurance for many U.S. residents 'merely a symptom' of larger problem with costs, according to opinion piece

The major presidential candidates have "talked frequently" about proposals to expand health insurance to more U.S. residents but have failed to "recognize that lack of coverage is merely a symptom of a larger problem: the high cost of medical care," Dwight Bartlett, a former Social Security Administration chief actuary and a former Maryland insurance commissioner, writes in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece.

According to Bartlett, although U.S. expenditures on health care account for about 16% of the gross domestic product, residents "get less for it." He also writes that "perhaps 30% to 40%" of care delivered is "unnecessary, wasteful, even dangerous." Bartlett writes that health care reform proposals must remove incentives for the delivery of unnecessary care, establish care protocols based on effectiveness studies, cap noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, increase use of health care information technology and reduce administrative expenses.

He concludes, "We can only hope that in the coming presidential election campaign," presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) "will shift their focus from symptom to cause" and identify "other reforms as useful, or more so, than these" (Bartlett, Baltimore Sun, 6/24).