Editorial: Health care costs run wild

Saturday, July 8, 2006 | 7:41 a.m.

Life in Nevada must be suiting Erik D. Olsen, the new president of AARP, the national, nonpartisan organization for people 50 and older. At 69, he is finding the energy to throw himself into some of the most important issues facing not just older Americans, but also the whole country.

Olsen is an Army veteran and University of Nebraska graduate who is now living in the Lake Tahoe area after careers in Arizona and California as a dentist and dental health insurance executive.

In a recent interview with Newhouse News Service, Olsen said he intends to voice strong opinions during his presidency about health care and its rocketing costs.

Olsen sees "runaway health care costs" as a hidden tax, noting that in no other developed country do people pay anywhere near what Americans pay when they receive medical attention. Olsen says he is hoping that AARP's attention to this fact will make it the key political issue within two years.

We agree that health care costs, although debilitating to personal and national finances, are not getting quality attention and haven't been since President Bill Clinton's first term. "It is very, very critical that we develop some method of health care reform, something the nation agrees upon, something that is bipartisan, something that has universal access, has quality care and reasonable costs," Olsen said.

There's a reason that Olsen speaks first about health care costs, ahead of such other urgent matters as the dwindling quality and participation rate in federal and private retirement plans. He notes that Baby Boomers, generally considered those born between 1946 and 1964, will start turning 65 in just five years.

A central question is this: With the country already nearing $8.5 trillion in debt and running deficits of hundreds of billions a year, what can be done to ensure that Medicare remains solvent as the Baby Boomers begin retiring?

We're glad that Olsen is promising to forcefully address the tough issue of health care during his presidency. We suspect his name will become well known in the coming months.