Frist Supports Health Bill

Good to know there are some seemingly dyed-in-the-wool GOP types who are at least partly open to some of the health care reform proposals knocking around the halls of Congress. Count among that tiny minority the former Senate Republican chief Bill Frist, who says he’d vote for the measure despite its shortcomings. –KA

“Swampland” in Time.com:

Were he still in the Senate, “I would end up voting for it,” he said. “As leader, I would take heat for it. … That’s what leadership is all about.”

This is not to say that Frist is entirely happy with everything that is in the bill.

For one thing, he doesn’t think it does nearly enough to bring costs under control. In his view, it does not fundamentally change the incentives that providers now have to provide more care, rather than better care. “There is really nothing to bend the cost curve,” he says.

And Frist also predicts it will extend coverage to only 20 million or so additional Americans–far short of true universal coverage.

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