Sunday, November 3, 2013

Our Health Care System Sucks

So says conservative apostate Josh Barro:
And while we enjoy those high costs and middling quality, we leave one in seven U.S. residents without a good way to pay for health care they might need — care that is drastically more expensive here than it would be anywhere else on a pre-insurance basis.
In a sane world, "This health reform plan will make America like France!" would be praise, not a dire warning.
But instead, politicians run around talking about how wonderful American health care is. Republicans have a de-facto agenda of opposing any reform to the health insurance system. Democrats are reduced to lying and saying their reform efforts won't change anything for people who like the coverage they have, because huge numbers of Americans have decided for some insane reason that they like the crazy expensive, often spotty, not-especially-effective coverage they have.
I support Obamacare because I believe it will improve our terrible health care system on the margins. Subsidies will tend to be shifted toward people who need them and away from those who don't. More people will be covered. Modest cost control improvements will be implemented, such as through a tax on high-cost plans and new payment systems that encourage providers to focus on producing good outcomes rather than providing expensive treatments.
But the real problem with Obamacare is that it does not change the American health care system enough in the direction of other countries' systems. Republicans are wrong to warn that Obamacare will turn America's health care system into a European-style one. I wish they were right.
Amen.  We have a health care system.  It isn't the best in the world.  It is the most expensive in the world.  It would probably help if we took a look at how other first-world countries ran their health care systems and tried to emulate them.  Instead we've got to pretend our system is great because we are morons.

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