Today a group of 20 leading economists from several top universities wrote a letter to President Obama confirming that several measures included in the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health insurance reform legislation “will reduce long-term deficits, improve the quality of care, and put the nation on a firm fiscal footing.”

The economist say that these measures will “help transform the health care system from delivering too much care, to a system that consistently delivers higher-quality, high-value care.”

The measures praised by the economists are:

1. A fee on insurance companies that offer high-premium plans — this would create a strong incentive for more efficient plans that would help to reduce rising premiums.
2. Establishing a Medicare Commission — the Commission would develop and submit proposals to Congress aimed at extending the solvency of Medicare, slowing the cost growth of Medicare, and improving the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries.
3. Delivery system reforms to ensure that patients receive high-quality, high-value care.
4. And, as the President has insisted from the beginning, health insurance reform legislation will not add a dime to the deficit.

Politico has a copy of the letter, which can be read here.