The Times editorial board focuses on the failing healthcare system in the United States, urging Congress and all parties involved to start the reform process now before it's too late. Despite sharp disagreements over some of the proposed fixes, the board notes the broad consensus about three main problem areas: rising costs, incomplete coverage and questionable quality:
The cost, quality and coverage problems are intertwined. Healthcare providers
pass along the expense
of caring for the uninsured and underinsured, raising costs for those
who have insurance. Insurers respond by raising prices, which leads
more employers and individuals to drop coverage. The low reimbursement
rates prompt physicians to move into more lucrative careers as
specialists, reducing the supply of the primary-care doctors who are
vital to timely, high-quality care. And the perverse financial
incentives in the system deter doctors and hospitals from aligning
their interests with those of their patients. After all, the healthcare
industry profits more from treating ailments than from preventing them....
The U.S. healthcare system isn't a failure. It's extraordinarily good
at some things, such as developing new treatments. But its
inefficiencies and gaps have created flaws so deep, the system cannot
be sustained for long. Not enough people are receiving the care they
need when they need it, and those who are pay too much for it. The
problems are getting bigger and more complex. The longer we wait to
solve them, the more intractable they will become.
On the Op-Ed side of the fold, Steven Hill proposes several ways that California can approach a constitutional convention that will potentially remake the state into California, Version 2.0. The problem, he writes, is how to choose delegates. He concludes that random selection -- as done in Canada, among other countries -- may be the best and fairest option. Gregory Rodriguez discusses the danger of urban downsizing and the Obama administration's consideration of a plan to shrink deteriorating cities by bulldozing neighborhoods:
The plan makes sense on some level, but it's disturbing on
another. Anyone who's driven by miles of empty lots in Detroit knows
that urban demolition does more than destroy blight. It also erases
history and what a city was. Traces of the past have always been
jumping-off places for the next chapter (think rehabbed Victorians or
sleek post-industrial lofts). And, of course, the back-to-nature plan
-- which could be used in cities such as Memphis, Baltimore,
Philadelphia and others -- is fundamentally an admission and may be an
assurance that these cities will never rise again.
And Susan R. Barry reflects on the beauty of a 3-D world as well as the potential benefits of 3-D movies in spotting visual defects in children.
Photo: Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee hold a rally in Washington, D.C., for their healthcare overhaul bill on June 16. Credit: Robert
Giroux / Getty Images
