PricewaterhouseCoopers has released an analysis of the Obama health plan suggesting it would eliminate two-thirds of the uninsured at a cost of $75 billion a year.

Interesting, the authors of the report suggest that our current financial crisis, far from impeding reform efforts, could actually spur lawmakers into action. In a press release, PwC's David Levy, MD said:

The financial crisis could accelerate health reform rather than be a roadblock to it. Right now, we have an historic opportunity to fix our broken health system as many forces converge around bringing better value for patients, and those forces could become unleashed by a new President who has pledged to make healthcare reform a priority of his administration.

The full report is available here, with registration. Among its other findings:

• Of the 30 million who would gain coverage under Obama's plan, nearly 40 percent would do so through their employers.
• More than one-third of the funding from the plan could come from existing money being spent on the uninsured.
• By 2025, the cost saving proposals of the plan could generate a 9 percent savings in health care costs.

PwC draws many parallels between the Obama plan and the health reforms enacted in Massachusetts, noting the state's success in achieving near—universal coverage. The report also posits that any coverage expansion will add to the already heavy burden placed on the strained delivery system and particularly primary care. Finally the report emphasizes that affordability and the need to control costs are key to the success of any proposal. Toward that PwC lays out some additional steps beyond Obama's campaign proposals to improve care and lower costs. Most of their suggestions (e.g. keep people well, reorder treatment around collaboration) have been made before, but PwC does attempt to lay out the details of what public-private collaboration on reform could look like.

As always, costs estimates based on campaign proposals should be taken in the appropriate context. The real work of crafting reforms that can work for all Americans is only just beginning. Still the PwC analysis shows that meaningful health reform is not only possible in our current economic climate, but very much necessary.