Anyone who talks about future deficits and doesn't talk about healthcare costs isn't serious. Social Security will be more or less fine with some combination of tax increases and/or benefit reduction (i.e. raising retirement age). But this New Yorker piece makes clear that healthcare costs are skyrocketing - not because of Medicare or private insurance, but because doctors are going out of control, without any noticeable increase in quality of care: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_...
But there's nothing in it for Wall Street if we constrain healthcare costs, so Peterson will go back to shilling for Social Security privatization.
Please read the article before commenting on what it does or does not talk about:
"the tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded entitlements and promises, ... the metastasizing health-care costs, our energy gluttony. These structural deficits are unsustainable."
Also, I would be wary of any analysis of a situation as complex as US health care that lays blame 100pct on "out of control doctors."
Anyone who talks about future deficits and doesn't talk about healthcare costs isn't serious. Social Security will be more or less fine with some combination of tax increases and/or benefit reduction (i.e. raising retirement age). But this New Yorker piece makes clear that healthcare costs are skyrocketing - not because of Medicare or private insurance, but because doctors are going out of control, without any noticeable increase in quality of care: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_...
But there's nothing in it for Wall Street if we constrain healthcare costs, so Peterson will go back to shilling for Social Security privatization.