Harold Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and a Special Correspondent for The Treatment.

More in sorrow than in anger, Washington Times editorialists are concerned that President Obama doesn't do enough to control costs. The Times particularly chides the President for delaying the proposed "Cadillac tax" on costly insurance plans.

Harold Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and a Special Correspondent for The Treatment.

Will health care reform help slow down rising costs? The Congressional Budget Office, even while totally discounting the slew of new cost-containment methods in the Senate bill, says yes. Conservative skeptics say no, arguing that Americans won't tolerate cuts to even totally ineffective spending on medical care.

In the last month, Michael Jackson departed us for the great Neverland in the sky, and Jon dumped Kate for a younger woman. And yet, with perhaps the grim exception of Larry King, health care reform is now dominating the media. These days, you can't turn on the news, flip through a newspaper, or open a Web browser without hearing about it. And the material is hardly frothy. Should insurance exchanges include firewalls? Should we change the Sustainable Growth Rate? Is it time to create an Independent Medicare Advisory Council? Score one for American political discourse.