Does Curing Health Care Require That Consumers Feel the Pain?
Jonathan Gruber says controlling health care costs requires that consumers face the consequences of their health insurance choices:
[F]undamental cost control can only come from the supply side. ... But ... effective supply-side control will involve restricting consumers in some way ... Unless consumers face a financial penalty from their choices that drive health care upward, supply-side reforms will fail.
Update: Robert Fogel:
There is no need to suppress the demand for healthcare. Expenditures on healthcare are driven by demand, which is spurred by income and by advances in biotechnology that make health interventions increasingly effective.
Posted by Mark Thoma on Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 12:18 AM in Economics, Health Care, Policy |
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