Facts are stubborn things:
Serious students of health care have known for a long time that the magic of the marketplace doesn’t work in health care; the United States has the most privatized health-care system in the advanced world, and also the least efficient. The pale reflection of this reality in the current discussion is that reform with a strong public option is cheaper than reform without — which means that as we get closer to really doing something, rhetoric about socialism fades out, and that $100 billion or so in projected savings starts to look awfully attractive.
It has also been clear from international evidence that universality is cheaper than leaving a few people expensively without care. That’s reflected now in the projected savings from a strong employer mandate.
The point is that reality is pushing for a more progressive reform than the Baucus bill. Truly, the facts have a liberal bias.
via The facts have a liberal health-care bias – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com.
