Health plan's effect on costs may be slight

Despite promises by President Obama and Democratic leaders that their healthcare overhaul would lower costs, the proposals before Congress would probably not cut overall U.S. healthcare spending significantly anytime soon, health policy specialists say. "I think there are some valuable steps being taken to position us in the future for cost containment," Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, told the Boston Globe. "But there is nothing that is clearly going to be a powerful force for slowing the cost trends."