How to Cure Health Care

Hoover Institution/Advancing a Free Society ^ | July 30, 2001 | Milton Friedman

[leftofright]

Since the end of World War II, the provision of medical care in the United States and other advanced countries has displayed three major features: first, rapid advances in the science of medicine; second, large increases in spending, both in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars per person and the fraction of national income spent on medical care; and third, rising dissatisfaction with the delivery of medical care, on the part of both consumers of medical care and physicians and other suppliers of medical care.

[Alberta's Child]

This is a great article. It reinforces a point I've been making for years. In health care, the real debate is not "public" vs. "private," but "direct" vs. "third-party" payment for services.

A health care sector dominated by private insurance companies is no more economically sound than one financed entirely by government. This is why medical procedures like Lasik and most cosmetic surgery are the only ones that get less expensive over time ... because no third-party medical insurance provider pays for them.

[lightman]

No mention of Tort reform in the article.

No Tort reform = placebo, no cure.

[Fraxinus]

While tort reform would do many good things it is not the panacea that many seem to think it is.

I believe that tort reform will only reduce the rate of increase in medical costs. There are several other drivers that will not be affected.