More on healthcare
Great post on healthcare by Tyler Cowen. Ironically, the comments on the post are as horrificly bad and uninformed as Tyler’s post is good.
Let me be clear: the incentives today are screwy. Let me also tell you my ideal world. Insurance companies are judged by honest third party intermediaries. Insurance companies compete like heck to make customers satisfied. Insurance companies monitor doctors, read Robin Hanson, and require evidence-based medicine. Insurance companies which fail at these pursuits either go bankrupt or they must abide by an ex ante contract to permit the exile of their CEOs to Greenland. Every year prices would fall in real terms, quality would improve, and coverage would be expanded. Imagine the whole health care sector working like laser eye surgery or cosmetic surgery.
This is not the world we live in, but it is the world we should aim for and I am more than willing to consider how government might get us there. (Mandating greater price transparency is but one step.) But if we institute a single-payer system, or highly regulated mandates, we will never have much chance of arriving in that world. Ever. We will have a fairly static sector with high coverage levels but rising costs long term and less innovation.
Read the whole thing.
