Some optimism on healthcare cost-control

It's generally accepted that while the pending healthcare legislation largely solves the problem of coverage, it does little to address the other, (more important, in my view) problem: cost-control. Well, it's there that Atul Gawande comes in. He's got a terrific new article in The New Yorker, where he compares the numerous pilot programs in the current legislation to those that were tried (very successfully) to solve the agriculture crisis a century ago. Two thoughts:

1) I sure hope Gawande's analogy is right, and these pilot programs eventually solve the cost problem. I'm not so sure though, because two big differences now compared to a century ago are the extreme partisanship amongst Republicans (it's entirely conceivable they'd turn down perfectly good ideas just because they happen to be in a "Democrat" bill), and amount of power special interests have today (it's hard to imagine everyone who benefits from the current fee-for-service model meekly acquiescing to letting their fat margins be smoothed down just because it happens to be the right thing to do.)

2) The article is a superb piece of writing. You can see that there's actually been thought and research put into it, unlike so much of the mindless blather that passes for analysis nowadays (not only on the Right, which sort of goes without saying, but increasingly on the Left as well).