Cost, not Public Option, Is Key Health Care Issue

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Obscured by the war in Congress over a government-run health insurance option are several behind-the-scenes battles that could do more to transform the U.S. health care system.

A variety of proposals at the fringes of the debate take aim at the most vexing part of the $2.6 trillion U.S. health system: soaring costs, which are bankrupting individuals, businesses and government, devouring wages and swelling the ranks of the uninsured.

But no bills in Congress make cost control a central feature. Most innovations are relegated to pilot programs and do not alter underlying economic incentives for patients and doctors to overuse care.