Health care.(Editorial)

FEW WOULD ARGUE THAT THE current health care system in the United States is working as well as we want. Tens of millions of Americans are uninsured, leaving the rest of us to pay for any care they do receive--often of the most expensive type and in the most expensive settings.

Those of us who are insured are also held hostage by the current system. The artificial connection between the workplace and health insurance means that millions who might like to change jobs or start their own businesses can't risk losing their own health benefits or those of their families.

If President Barack Obama and the Democrats have their way, reform is coming this year. He and congressional leaders have made it a priority, despite this being the worst possible time for the government to take on costly new obligations. (Like too many households, Congress must be wishing it had not squandered so much money on frivolities when times were good.)

However, we're still a long way from answers on what reform will look like--or how much it will cost. Some experts have put the pricetag at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Whatever the ultimate price, we do know that new taxes will be necessary to pay for it.

Obama's economic adviser, Larry Summers, said a national health plan could save $700 billion. While we have no doubt that a well-crafted system would be more efficient than the crazy-quilt system we have now, it's our long experience that government tends to underestimate costs and overestimate savings.

Meanwhile, a report was released last week saying that the recession had dealt a blow to Medicare and Social Security. Both will run out of money earlier than previously predicted -2017 for Medicare and 2037 for Social Security. That's because, with millions of lost jobs, fewer people are paying the payroll taxes that fund those benefit programs.

It's difficult to see how Congress can mend both health care and the benefits programs when the nation has already taken its debt to never-before-seen levels and the president's budget is proposing almost $1 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years--most of that from individuals.

Although Americans seem more open to health care reform than ever before, and business is looking for ways to slow the increasing cost of employee benefits, raising taxes seems counterintuitive during a recession.

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