Tyler Cowen on Health Care Coverage Reform

Our health care system needs reforming — we can all agree on that. What we can’t agree on is how to go about doing it. Tyler Cowen made a list of some options for health care coverage reform, including:

1. Universal health insurance vouchers on exchanges, with means-tested subsidies and also a mandate. The logic of this can work just fine, but it is quite expensive as it would exist in the United States and we end up spending too much on health care. Over time it would be accompanied by say a five percent VAT.

2. Single payer systems. I don’t want to repeat the usual debates, but perhaps we can agree single payer won’t come anytime soon in the United States. I also think they work least well in the land of medical innovation, and best in small countries such as New Zealand, but that consideration doesn’t even rise to the fore here.

He has more suggestions. Also useful is his post from 2007 on how to debate health care policy.

Photo: Davidd

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