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That’s it? Technology is Obama’s answer in healthcare?

I was expecting more, to be honest.

A presidential inauguration speech is a paint-by-numbers exercise in which all major issues must be touched in some way, but only after introducing healthcare as “too costly” did President Obama mention that the solution is to “wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.”

That’s a bit like saying that the key to a vigorous lawn is the timely application of pre-emergent herbicide. The problem is knowing the right mix.  In the next few weeks, we’ll see more details from HHS and the White House on what “wielding technology’s wonders” will cost, who will pay for it, and what wonderful technology will be wielded. So far we know that $20 billion of the new spending plan has been set aside for healthcare IT. (For more on this, see this week’s analysis from HealthLeaders Technology editor Kathryn Mackenzie.)

One blaring sign is not what he said, but what he did not. There was no mention of “healthcare for all,” or anything of the sort that would fuel those who would like him closer to universal coverage.

If anything, Obama’s roughly 2,400-word address tried to cover too many bases–the economy, Founding Fathers, civil rights, the Muslim world, energy, national mood, etc.  But there were some other clues on healthcare, including his promise that “the question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” One might presume that no Democrat would ever say government is too big, but he did add that “where the answer is no, programs will end.”