| The Laffer Curve of the Left |
| Wednesday, June 17, 2009 |
By Megan McArdle
I'd say we have substantial empirical evidence that we are not going to control the health care cost inflation which is busting Medicare's budget, much less the new costs the administration is planning to add. We have been trying to control health care costs since the 1970s made it clear that Medicare was going to get really, really expensive. And any idea that you care to name, from comparative effectiveness research to healthcare IT to preventive medicine . . . these have all been on the table for more than thirty years, under one name or another. They haven't happened.
The answer that those promising magical cost reductions need to ask is "Why haven't they happened?" and "What has changed to make them feasible now?" But when I ask this question, I get angry demands that I put forward my plan for cost control, rather than merely critiquing everyone else's. This seems rather like demanding that I put forward my design for a perpetual motion machine before I am allowed to point out problems in the US energy market.
To those who say, pretty reasonably, "Why not demonstrate that you can control these costs in Medicare before asking us to believe you can do it with a broader program?" the response is something like a snapped, "But I don't want to just control Medicare costs! I want universal coverage!" Ah. Well, Republicans don't want to maximize tax revenue; they want to cut taxes. This does not make their now-deliberate wishful thinking any prettier. Nor obligate the rest of us to fulfill their desire at the expense of sound budget policy.
Both Medicare cost control and Republican tax cuts are like the Red Queen's strategy in Alice in Wonderland: "Jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but never jam today". They promise sweeteners to sell their favored policies, but when the day actually arrives, time and time again we're left holding an empty jar.
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posted by citizen jerk @ 2:28 PM   |
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Good job. Everybody make post related comments. Thanks.
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Good job. Everybody make post related comments. Thanks.