What do financial reform and health care reform have in common?

Consider both the financial reform and health reform proposals on the table. Both contain many changes and every detail has been hotly debated. But these changes tend to be on the margin and may or may not produce positive effects. At this point in fact they look to have little impact because the fundamental institutions that need reform are not just preserved but further entrenched.

The health care reform maintains the principal features of our existing insurance system and pulls in additional payers to spread the cost. That works out well for insurance companies who get more premiums but what about the public? It’s not cynical, nor is it without precedent, to predict that changes at the margins won’t significantly alter a bloated, broken system. The problem in health care is not only that millions of Americans don’t have health insurance. It’s that the current system of health insurance doesn’t work very well at all. Think of enormous premiums, low coverage and poor quality of services. Surely more of the same is not the answer. And in the case of financial reform, the proposals on the table also boil down to more of the same. Financial institutions will remain quite free to take excessive risks with other people’s money and the public will remain obligated to pick up the pieces.

Let’s stop pretending that these so-called reform acts represent important changes in the public interest and acknowledge what’s really going on; continuing protection of corporate interests disguised as reform. In essence both sets of policies look like they will end up feeding our flawed institutions while the public hopes for scraps.