Posted on 07/07/2009 12:10:44 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Why the government can't reduce the cost of health care.
Before the end of the summer, the deadline President Obama has set for enacting legislation, words in the untold millions will compete for your attention on the subject of health care.
Paul Krugman will exercise himself every week in The New York Times. Members of Congress will swagger and preen whenever the health care plans they have proposed appear to be gaining support. (As I write, Sen. Max Baucus has strutted out a press release claiming that the latest version of his own plan would "[keep] the cost of health care legislation under $1 trillion.")
Economists will produce analyses. Think tanks will publish position papers. Editorial writers, talking heads, radio talk show hosts, bloggers--all will expound, spinning and contending in a nationwide din of ululation.
Good citizen, you may ignore it all.
To learn all you need to know about health care, you may instead consider just a few simple observations offered this past week by economist Thomas Sowell.
The government can reduce the amount Americans spend on health care, Sowell noted, in only two ways. Either the government must provide health care more efficiently than the private sector does, or the government must administer the distribution of health care, controlling both the supply and the pricing--engaging, that is, in rationing.
Could the government achieve the first? Could it actually provide health care more efficiently than the present system, which, despite vast government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, remains based in the private sector? "I can't think of anything the government operates more efficiently than the private sector does," Sowell said.
If health care were expensive because much of it is provided by for-profit entities, then why haven't not-for-profit entities already solved the problem? "Non-profit organizations could go in
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
C’mon Tom. Run !
As always a much needed BUMP for this man of wisdom.
A Thomas Sowell ....
Ping
“C’mon Tom. Run !”
I would agree if he were a tad bit younger. Problem is Dr. Sowell is almost eighty years old. GOD Bless him.
An older Dr. Sowell beats a younger Obama any day.
Peter Robinson on Thomas Sowell’s words on healthcare.
Thanks for the ping, MitchellC.
Thanks. May Sowell live to a healthy 100 years.....America needs him.
BUMP to that! We really need him.
I really wish these serious American black men (as opposed to half-white-American true-African half-black man) would run.
Sowell or Walt Williams would easily get my vote; no questions asked. Easily over the pasty white wimpy idiots we have in the GOP who DO run (..McPain...coughcough..Romney...cough).
Thanks for the ping jaz.
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