Twice during Wednesday night's press conference, reporters asked President Obama what sacrifices his health care reform plans would ask of the American people. It's a common and intuitive question: in order to give the public something--like a guarantee of health insurance that they can afford--the public has to give something up.
Of course, it hasn't always worked that way in practice, like in the Bush years. But just because the last guy in the White House didn't demand the American people to pay for some policies doesn't mean the new guy should. Most experts would tell you that achieving universal health care will require ponying up some new money. And the money has to come from somewhere. Thus, the sacrifice.
Except "sacrifice" is a funny word. Sacrifice means parting with something you value dearly. And that was subtext of those two questions Wednesday night. One, from ABC’s Jake Tapper, wondered whether Americans would have to give up "tests, referrals, choice, end-of-life care." The other, from CBS's Chip Reid, asked whether Medicare beneficiaries would have to put up with lesser benefits.
Neither question was ridiculous; there's a good case to be made that while Americans will surely have to give up some things for reform.
But it turns out there is much in American health care that's worth giving up--starting with the money wasted on pushing paper around. That includes the money individuals spend, haggling with doctors, hospitals, and insurers over billing disputes. It also includes the money companies spend, feverishly reworking their numbers and calling in consultants to help figure out ways of trimming their health benefits costs.