Nobel Economist Gary Becker in the WSJ: Drafting A Good Health Care Bill Would Have Been Easy

"The health care legislation is a bad bill. Health care in the United States is pretty good, but it does have a number of weaknesses and this bill doesn't address them. It adds taxation and regulation. It's going to increase health costs—not contain them.

Drafting a good health care bill would have been easy. Health savings accounts could have been expanded. Consumers could have been permitted to purchase insurance across state lines, which would have increased competition among insurers. The tax deductibility of health-care spending could have been extended from employers to individuals, giving the same tax treatment to all consumers. And incentives could have been put in place to prompt consumers to pay a larger portion of their health-care costs out of their own pockets.

Here in the United States we spend about 17% of our GDP on health care, but out-of-pocket expenses make up only about 12% of total health-care spending (see chart above). In Switzerland, where they spend only 11% of GDP on health care, their out-of-pocket expenses equal about 31% of total spending. The difference between 12% and 31% is huge. Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."

~Nobel economist Gary Becker in the WSJ