E. J. Dionne tries to reconcile numbers in health care bill

Bear in mind that the CBO figures showing a net deficit reduction for our most recent version of the health care bill include the caveat that the Medicare savings may not materialize.  Dionne was answering a question posed to him on the Hugh Hewitt Show, and I rely on Hewitt's transcript:

"Well, some of it, what they’re talking about is moving away from fee for service medicine. And they’re talking about a lot of different ways of charging people for medicine that encourage activities by doctors that deliver care more efficiently. The truth is we are shifting money that’s paid into the health care system one way, and paying it back into the health care system another way. And so I am persuaded that you are not going to see seniors, once this thing actually takes effect in 2014, or 2013, if they back it up a little bit, I don’t think you are going to see seniors wildly unhappy. And I think you’re going to see a lot of seniors very happy as they close the donut hole on the prescription drug benefit. So again, I think some of the polling among seniors against the bill reflects the fact that this generation of seniors is very Republican compared to the earlier, the earlier New Deal generation of seniors. So I think that when you’re talking politically, a lot of seniors are going to say the bill is bad, and they’re going to vote Republican. But guess what? Seniors voted for John McCain over Barack Obama. I think that politically, what’s going to be interesting is the behavior probably 10-15% of seniors who are persuadable by your side of this or by the other side of this."

One comment from Dionne reminds me of a criticism I read some days ago.  That critic charged the bill with budgetary sleight of hand for counting Medicare savings as part of the overall savings, if I remember correctly, in spite of the fact that the money is spent regardless.  Dionne seems to play up that bug as a feature.  But how can seniors have any assurance that the saved monies will go toward care for the Medicare population?  I detect no such assurance.

The later satisfaction Dionne expects comes, I believe, from the satisfaction folks usually have with a service they do not use, combined with the satisfaction of at least a few who actually use the service.

Hewitt has a good number of transcripts dealing with the health care issue, many featuring the words of those who favor the legislation.