How Lack of Consumer Choice Drives Up Health Care Costs

Conn Carroll / August 19, 2009

Great article by self-identified Democrat David Goldhill in the Atlantic on health care reform. It is well worth your time to read the whole thing, but this section on how our dependence on third party payments (including employer sponsored health insurance and government programs) drives up health care costs is a good highlight:

One of the most widely held pieces of conventional wisdom about health care is that new technology is relentlessly driving up costs. Yet over the past 20 years, I’ve bought several generations of microwave ovens, personal computers, DVD players, GPS devices, mobile phones, and flat-screen TVs. I bank mostly at ATMs, check out my own goods at self-serve supermarket scanners, and attend company meetings by video­conference. Technology has transformed much of our daily lives, in almost all cases by adding quantity, speed, and quality while lowering costs. So why is health care different? (more…)