Health Systems and Health Costs

Related to today’s column: Suppose that you were really, really concerned about the long-run federal budget, and understood correctly that rising health care costs are the biggest source of rising spending. What you might do in that case is look around the world to see what kinds of health care system appear to be best at containing costs. And you wouldn’t have to look far, because there’s a pretty dramatic contrast just north of the border:

Data here.
So, Canada has a single-payer insurance system — actually called Medicare. Four decades ago, Canada spent about the same share of GDP on health care as we did. Since then, however, Canadian spending has risen far more slowly than spending in the US, which relies much more on private insurance. Meanwhile, despite the scare stories opponents of reform like to tell, Canadian health care appears on average to be as good as or better than US care; polls indicate that Canadians are more satisfied with their health care than Americans.
So, given this kind of evidence, the GOP insists that the way to control health costs is … to dismantle the single-payer part of our own system and turn the whole thing over to private insurers."

August 31, 2012, 12:07 pm95 Comments

Bernanke in the Hole

Jackson Hole, that is.
My quick summary:
1. Things are really, really bad.
2. The damage is cumulative; the longer this goes on, the worse the prospects for the future.
3. The Fed has the power to do a lot to help the economy.
4. While you can argue that there are costs to action, the case for major costs is quite weak, and in particular much weaker than the case for major benefits.
5. Therefore, what we at the Fed will do is, um, sit on our hands some more, and think very seriously about maybe, someday, doing something."

August 31, 2012, 2:51 pm102 Comments

Credibility

Eric Cantor explains Paul Ryan’s position on Medicare cuts:

Attacking Obama’s health care reform law, Ryan said its “biggest, coldest power play of all” targeted seniors for $716 billion in cuts. But Ryan’s own budget counted on those same savings, which in fact would be squeezed from reimbursement payments to hospitals and insurers. Asked about the inconsistency of Ryan attacking cuts his own plan embraced, Cantor begged off. “The assumption was that, um, the, the, ah, again — I probably can’t speak to that in an exact way so I better just not,” he said.

And, on a less important front (via Talking Points Memo):

In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt last week, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said he’s run a sub-3:00 marathon.
…
Runner’s World has been unable to find any marathon results by Ryan. Requests for more information from Ryan’s Washington and Wisconsin offices, and from the Romney-Paul campaign, have so far gone unanswered.

I know, the second thing sounds trivial. But I remember the 2000 campaign, when Al Gore was constantly hounded by claims of fibbing on trivial issues — claims that, by the way, were all, as far as I could tell, fabricated. These alleged fibs supposedly showed some deep defect in his character. So if Ryan is making false claims about his physical prowess, this is absolutely fair game."

The telegraph would like to panic: