Health Care: Obama, McCain, Hanson, and Utopia

DeLong is not the only guy that has made a big to do about getting rid of the employer exemption and has since done a partisan about face, Jason Furman is the other one that comes to mind. Though, to be fair, I think DeLong and Furman's overriding goal is expanding coverage.

I still don't understand how you can possibly know that we are consuming too much health care. I agree that we are hiding the full costs of treatment from health consumers but at the same time we are messing up incentives on the supply side too. You would easily laugh at any analyst who provided claims that we are consuming too many video games. Why are your tastes superior to someone who wants and is willing to pay for more health care (provided prices are corrected and now market prices)?

Paul,

"Ineffective and possibly harmful" certainly implies too much. At least of the current bundle of goods and services.

Not that I support limiting healthcare consumption by concenting adults.

Or you can look at the other side. Tax exempt means that people will consume a significant portion more healthcare than something of the same utility but taxed.

One-third of medical costs go for services at best ineffective and at worst harmful.

Fifty billion dollars will jump-start the long-overdue information revolution in health care to identify the best providers...

Regarding all that waste, I certainly agree it is there -- but a substantial part of it might derive from a simpler cause with a simpler solution than the DeLongs of this world with all their big spending plans want to consider.

To fix that we don't need an "information revolution", we need a revolution in the incentives politicians face.