July 15, 2011
David Brooks appears to have made a remarkable leap forward today. He told readers, “the fiscal crisis is driven largely by health care costs.”
Yes, after writing endless columns about out-of-control government spending and the wild liberals in the Democratic Party, someone apparently got David Brooks to look at the budget numbers. And, he saw what every budget wonk knows. While the current deficits are overwhelmingly the result of the devastation caused by the collapse of the housing bubble, the longer term shortfall is entirely the result of the projected rise in health care costs.
However, it seems that no one told Brooks that the problem is not that people in the United States are getting too much care, the problem is that we are paying too much for the care we get. The United States pays close to twice as much for its drugs, its doctors, its medical equipment as people in other wealthy countries. As a result, our per person health care costs are more than twice the average of other wealthy countries, even though they all enjoy longer life expectancies. If we paid the same amount per person for our health care as people in other wealthy countries, then we would be looking at long-term budget surpluses, not deficits.
This means that Brooks’ discussion of our willingness to die when life loses its joys is beside the point. The choices around the end of life are important and difficult, but that is not our health care cost problem. Our health care cost problem is the cesspool corruption that we rely upon for our health care.
Brooks has made a huge step forward by recognizing that the fiscal problem is not one of government spending generally, but rather spending on health care. Now he has to make another huge step forward to recognize that our health care system is a money pit that is better at transferring money to providers than giving care to the public.
Comments