PolicyGuy

Tuesday, September 30, 2003


Health Care Spending: Why is More Bad?
I've been reading various articles about the rising cost of health insurance--double-digit increases in premiums, and so forth.

Now, there is much that is wrong with our health care system: it involves too many third parties, health insurance as we know it isn't really health insurance, out-of-control judgments send malpractice insurance rates sky-high, and so forth.

But contrary to what you may read, increased spending on health care is not necessarily a problem. Health care is, after all, a good thing. And when you have more money, you spend more of it on good things. American houses cost a lot more than they used to--but they also have more space and more features, in keeping with appetites for more and better. And one's health is even more important than housing, so if medical science knows how to increase the level of comfort during our lives, and we have the wherewithal to purchase that increased well-being, what's the problem?

Yes, there are many changes that should be made, and much spending on health care is wasted. But the overall level of spending on health is not a problem. It's the sign that we continue to have a wealthy society.

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"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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