Health Costs
Re “It’s a Bitter Pill to Swallow, but We Can’t Have It All,” Commentary, March 22: Stephen Cohen writes, “There’s only so much we can spend on health care without driving the nation to insolvency. It’s a simple principle of economics, but it’s something the public has yet to accept.”
I beg to differ. There is no principle of economics that a nation can spend only so much on health care. Unfortunately, that fiction has been restated so often by so many that it has become widely accepted.
The preferences and decisions of millions of Americans, along with various government policies, determine total expenditures on health care. We could spend far more than we do currently and still retain a flourishing economy. And we could spend much less and still face recession.
That there is a linkage between the volume of health care spending and economic health is a fiction that should be laid to rest.
WILLIAM S. COMANOR
Prof. of Health Services, UCLA
Prof. of Economics, UCSB
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