Devon Herrick, PhD of the National Center of Policy Analysis responds to this sentiment: "Families should not be required to contribute more than 10 percent of their income toward their health coverage or out-of-pocket medical costs (5 percent for low-income families)."
Why is this unrealistic? Herrick writes:
What individuals do not pay ...
Economist Arnold Kling's outline on his forthcoming health care debate are below. I especially like point 5, on what insurance should be. For more on that, see his essay, Insurance vs. Insulation.
1. I am the radical in the debate. A free-market health care system is a much greater departure from ...
Some gems from Robert Samuelson's Washington Post column:
The central health-care problem is not improving coverage. It's controlling costs. In 1960, health care accounted for $1 of every $20 spent in the U.S. economy; now that's $1 of every $6, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that it could be $1 ...
It's become a mantra that there are "47 million uninsured" Americans, a figure people use to back compulsory "universal" health insurance of some kind. Google found about fifty pages with the phrase on the Denver Post website alone. Democrat Jared Polis has mentioned 45 million, while Democrat Will Shafroth 50 million. Sure, 47 million ...
According to the OECD, patients in the United States pay only 13% of their medical expenses out of pocket (as of 2005). This is equal to the United Kingdom, and less than Canada, both of which have (nominally) single-payer health care. The consequence of patients spending so little for their own ...
The New York Times reports on how expensive CT scans for heart disease are often unneccessary, and relates one case where the patient probably did not need the scan: The doctor "said the scan would be valuable anyway because it might reassure him. And his insurance would cover the cost."
I understand the ...
