Healthcare as we know it is a serious burden on the national economy. Partisans on both sides of the debate at least agree on that. Some project that healthcare costs will equal 20 percent of our GNP in the next decade if major changes aren’t made. But what is the real cost of healthcare reform? Is a public option the answer? And is congress willing to make the necessary changes to fundamentally overhaul the system?
Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Reed Abelson who covers healthcare for the NYT, and Teresa Ghilarducci director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy at the New School on the economics of healthcare reform.