Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer argued the importance of health care reform in tackling the national deficit Monday during remarks at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

“It is fiscally irresponsible not to do health care reform,” she said. “To bury our head in the sand for even one more year and pretend that the problem of rising government health care expenditures will go away is simply untenable. We are on a collision course with reality.”

Romer noted that any expansion of health care must be completely paid for in the short-run, that reforms must “genuinely and significantly” slow the growth rate of costs and must be at budget neutral over the next decade.

“So far, health reform legislation is on track to accomplish all three of these objectives,” she said. “It is essential that the final legislation stay true to these fundamental goals.”

Romer added that steps taken by Congress to expand health coverage, such as mandating insurance and offering tax-credits for small business firms in order to insure employees, would reduce state and local expenditures for uncompensated care.

“The [16] states in our sample are spending at least $4.2 billion on care for the uninsured each year,” she said.