A Washington Post Post

In today’s Washington Post, I have an op-ed that lays out the four key pillars of fiscally-responsible health reform as endorsed by a group of the nation’s leading economists: deficit neutrality, an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans, a Medicare commission, and delivery system reform. As we move closer to a final bill, I argue that the greatest risk we run is not completing health reform.

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Reducing Improper Payments

Each year, taxpayers lose billions of dollars in wasteful improper payments by the federal government to individuals, organizations, and contractors. "Improper payments" is an umbrella term that covers a number of financial transactions — overpayments to individuals or firms is one example; benefit payments to ineligible program participants is another. In 2008, improper payments totaled $72 billion; in 2009, they totaled $98 billion — an increase driven by improved detection and the significant increase in federal outlays associated with the economic downturn. These errors and mistakes are unacceptable. Taxpayers deserve to know that their dollars are being spent wisely and effectively.

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Fiscally Responsible Health Reform Redux

Every two weeks or so, there seems to be a story ringing the alarm bells over the fiscal dimension of health reform. As I've said time and again, the President is committed to signing a health reform bill that is deficit neutral in the first decade — and deficit reducing thereafter. The legislation under consideration in the Senate and the bill passed Saturday by the House both meet these tests.

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Step Right Up

Last Friday marked the end of the first month of the OMB pedometer challenge. As a team, we took a whopping 51,337,900 in the first month. This is equivalent to walking almost 26,000 miles — over a thousand miles more than walking the full circumference of the earth. Quite an accomplishment.