EXCERPT:
The core irrationality "in American health care, something that economists have spent decades begging the political class to fix. Namely: "Because most consumers of health care are largely insulated from directly paying for the services they use, health care is generally perceived as an unlimited free good. . . . Wants and needs become insatiable when care is believed to be free."
"Mr. Battistella begins with the original sin of modern American health care: the government's World War II-era decision that gave businesses tax incentives to sponsor insurance for their workers but that did not extend the same dispensation to individuals. Since third parties were paying most of the bills—employers at first and eventually, with the creation of Medicare in 1965, the government as well— no one had any reason to be assiduous about controlling the cost of care. Patients always seemed to be spending someone else's money.
