Paul Krugman: In America, medical costs often cause financial distress [more than] any other advanced nation. How and why [is this]? Factors [are] [1] high administrative costs, [2] high drug prices, [3] excessive testing. The common theme — an excess of money-driven medicine. Other advanced countries don’t suffer from comparable problems because private gain is less of an issue. Outside the U.S., the government provides health insurance directly, or ensures its availability from tightly regulated nonprofit insurers; often, many hospitals are publicly owned, and many doctors are public employees. Conservatives don’t like the observation that American health care performs worse than other countries’ systems because of its reliance on the private sector and the profit motive. So whenever someone points [that] out, theres a chorus of denial, claims that America does offer better care — claims [that] end up relying on zombie arguments, i.e., arguments that have been proved wrong, should be dead, but keep shambling along because they serve a political purpose.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 05:58:37 +0000