Yum!

On August 14, the Wall Street Journal carried this op-ed piece by Dr. Scott Atlas of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (subscription required, sorry).You’ll find it well worth the time to read. Particularly interesting to me is Atlas’ statement that “NHS insurance costs $3,500 annually for every British man, woman and child.”  I looked up the corresponding figure for the U.S. in the National Health Expenditure Tables published by CMS each year.  Doesn't everyone know by now that the US per-capita annual expenditures are far higher than the UK’s?  So that’s not the interesting part.The interesting part is that the annual US per-capita health expenditures were $3,500 back about 1994.   But in 1994, that level of expenditure was accepted in many quarters as conclusive evidence that the US needed single-payer medical care; that the private insurance industry had failed to control medical cost; and even that the American free market system had failed.  And here we are 20 years later observing the same annual $3,500 per capita . . . as evidence of NHS success in UK!  Meanwhile the much higher US cost is still accepted in the same quarters as evidence that the US needs single-payer medical care; that the private insurance industry is failing to control medical cost; and that the American free market system has failed.    I’d like to suggest a slightly different interpretation.  I suggest the history shows th...
Source: InsureBlog - Category: Medical Lawyers and Insurers Source Type: blogs