Texas Sidestep Exposes Medicaid Rhetoric

For obvious reasons many of us at HealthLeaders Media avoid writing about the politics of healthcare reform.

For one thing, there exist already hundreds of media outlets dedicated to the highly divisive topic, which often attracts commentary from the tinfoil hat brigades. More importantly, however, the politics of healthcare reform are ultimately beside the point.

People in the healthcare sector and the occasionally candid politician understand that healthcare reform is driven foremost by money and not politics or ideology. That is why the issue will still be with us regardless of which party occupies the White House or runs Congress next year.

There are legitimate disagreements on how to pay for healthcare, how to "bend the cost curve" and the extent to which the government should be involved. However, it is generally accepted that the current pace of healthcare spending, which will soon represent 20% of the nation's gross domestic product, is unsustainable.