Tyler Cowen has an op-ed on Medicare spending in the New York Times. Here’s his peroration:
The demand for universal coverage sounds like a moral imperative to “take care of everybody,†but in reality it would make only a marginal difference when it comes to the overall health of the American population. The sober reality is that universal coverage is another way to spend money, which may or may not be a good idea.
The most likely possibility is that the government will spend more on health care today, promise to realize savings tomorrow and never succeed in lowering costs. It is rare that governments successfully cut costs by first spending more money.
When you factor in the reality that we don’t have enough primary care physicians to “take care of everybody”, that sounds about right.
