Nobel Economist Gary Becker: It's A Bad Bill, But We're Stuck With It

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Nobel Economist Gary Becker explains how health care reform could have been made to actually work. You know, reduce costs and meet demand?

"The health-care legislation? It's a bad bill," Mr. Becker replies. "Health care in the United States is pretty good, but it does have a number of weaknesses. This bill doesn't address them. It adds taxation and regulation. It's going to increase health costs—not contain them."

Drafting a good bill would have been easy, he continues. Health savings accounts could have been expanded. Consumers could have been permitted to purchase insurance across state lines, which would have increased competition among insurers. The tax deductibility of health-care spending could have been extended from employers to individuals, giving the same tax treatment to all consumers. And incentives could have been put in place to prompt consumers to pay a larger portion of their health-care costs out of their own pockets..."

Go right now and read the rest at CARPE DIEM. You need to read the post at CARPE DIEM if for nothing more than the outstanding graph at the top of the post. I was shocked to find out what it shows.

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