Healthcare Reform an Insider's Game Now

In a strategic move, President Obama devoted fewer than 100 words to healthcare reform in his State of the Union address. In the most recent GOP candidates' debate, Mitt Romney denounced the Affordable Care Act. But in the same breath he defended the healthcare reform that he enacted as Governor of Massachusetts.

In this election year, the complexity of delivering quality care at a lower cost has been reduced to tightly controlled messaging by the President and his political opponents.

Elsewhere in Washington recently, at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' day-long care innovation summit, attendees and speakers reveled in the possibilities of more pliable cost curves and incentives for better care.

An estimated 1,000 medical professionals, academic and policy wonks, and investors gathered for the summit, which featured key players from CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, as well as popular healthcare speakers such as Dr. Atul Gawande.