DeLong (the other one) on health care costs and health insurance reform. http://american.com/archive/2009/maybe-we-should-spend-more-on-healthcare
| So what should be done about healthcare costs? Many things, including | a phaseout of employment-based health insurance in favor of other | policies; elimination of mandates that require insurance coverage | of designated procedures; availability of programs that combine | health savings accounts with catastrophe insurance; availability of | policies across state lines; reform of the tort system; reform of cost | accounting procedures that create dysfunctional incentives for industry | participants; availability of high deductibles so that insurance can be | insurance rather than socialized medicine; a second look at our policy | of forcing the young to subsidize the geezers, who are after all the | wealthiest segment of the population, and who can afford to spend more | on healthcare because other demands on their income are less. | It is a long list. Take care of these reforms and total spending | will take care of itself. Spending may become higher or lower—who | knows?—but it will better represent a reasonable assessment of value | for money. These reforms will also forestall the most worrisome aspect | of the current “spend too much” panic: the urge to cut costs at the | expense of the future. _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
