Morton Kondracke, a columnist for Roll Call newspaper, (sorry on-line subscription required to read the full article), had a very interesting and insightful piece yesterday where he outlines some of the reasons that health reform in 2009 will be more expansive than in might have been a few years ago.
He makes two very concrete and connected observations. First, that the economic downturn will increase the number of people without health insurance by 5-6 million, and probably add a similar number to the rolls for Medicaid and SCHIP – which will add to States’ budgetary problems. And second, that the costs of health reform are likely to be much greater than expected – assuming of course that there isn’t a dramatic economic rebound. …