Nine out of ten economists are convinced that we can lower health care costs by spending less on health insurance. Hence the excise tax on luxury health plans and John McCain's proposal to tax employer provided benefits. If people have less money to spend on health care then they will spend less. Supposedly without harm. Wonks Anonymous is skeptical of this, as some readers may already know, nevertheless these folks may have a point.

So, in the spirit of incrementalism and bipartisan compromise, Wonks Anonymous proposes that our betters legislate a major cut in health care expenditures.

Medicare currently pays about 15% more to health insurance companies to provide insurance to beneficiaries than it costs Medicare to provide these same benefits. This additional spending is draining the trust fund and encourages insurers to offer luxury insurance policies to capture lucrative Medicare contracts. In general it drives up medical spending.

Repeal the premium for private insurers who provide services to Medicare beneficiaries. This will not kill the private option for Medicare beneficiaries since there are a number of private HMOs that can offer services at lower average cost. It will kill a major source of wasteful spending.

Because this will result in a deficit reduction it can be passed by a simple majority. No filibuster, no Ben Nelson.

Plus it has the added advantage of making the health insurance industry suffer. These same companies played at compromise for six months and then withdrew support during our late health reform debacle.

The Democrats have a well earned reputation for being wimps. The only way to recover from this reputation is to show that you can punish your enemies.