Good piece by Leonhardt on health reform here:
Economic Scene – Support for Health Reform Requires Facing Facts on Costs – NYTimes.com.
So what’s in health reform for the majority of voters who already have health insurance? David Leonhardt makes a try to answer: $6500 per year per household. That’s what we spend over and above the average of other industrialized countries for care that doesn’t make us any healthier. You don’t see the employer contribution to health insurance premiums on your pay stub each week.
We actually lag other countries that spend far less per person in most objective measures of health. Wages have been stagnant over the last 20 years at least in part because health insurance premiums have consistently outpaced inflation and take up a larger, albeit hidden, share of your wages. It clearly doesn’t have to be that way. Productivity has grown, and in turn been eaten by health costs. You could have had that money in your pocket instead, if our political leadership had the willingness to take on entrenched interests that benefit from the boondoggle that is American health care.
h/t Ezra Klein Washington Post
