Experts say the current health care bills are too cautious and that more can be done to reform the system, and reach the primary goal of fundamentally overhauling the nation’s health care system, the Washington Post reports.

Although the Obama administration goal is to “save money by modernizing and improving” the current system, the measures included in the reform are addressing more the former, at the expense of the latter, by focusing on containing costs rather than dramatically changing how the system works.

Now, as the debate reaches a critical juncture, many are worried that the president’s ambitious hopes to constrain costs could result in tepid half-measures on Capitol Hill. Among the concerns:

A Senate plan to tax high-priced insurance policies saves far less money — and is less likely to change medical consumption — than eliminating the tax exemption for employer-sponsored coverage.

– Proposals on comparative-effectiveness research and a new Medicare cost-cutting commission have been watered down.

– An array of Medicare pilot projects aimed at paying doctors and hospitals for quality rather than quantity would take years to be implemented nationally — if they ever were.

– None of the bills addresses medical liability, even though the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that tort reform could save $54 billion over the next decade.

Experts also say that the reform does not provide enough incentives and enforcement measures to compel health care providers to move towards “the coordinated-care models reformers say are needed to save money and maintain high quality.” 

Photo via HealthCare4Me