But Massachusetts's universal health-care law has not (yet) bent the cost-curve, and Texas-style damage caps have not in fact increased doctor numbers.
Brian Strutton, from the GMB union, said Lord Hutton had not taken into account that caps on pay rises and job losses in the public sector meant the cost of pensions as a share of overall GDP would still fall despite the drop in economic output.
Reforms in the Senate and House bills will impose annual out-of-pocket caps, for the first time placing an upper limit on what individuals with high-cost chronic conditions will have to pay out-of-pocket.