Don’t Break What’s Working in Health Care: Economist Glen Whitman on Medical Innovation
When it comes to health insurance reform, California State University, Northridge economist Glen Whitman emphasizes, “We have to make sure we don’t just fix the parts that are broken. We also have to make sure we don’t actually break the parts that are working very well. And it turns out that one of the areas that America is really great at is innovation.”
Reason.tv’s Ted Balaker sat down with Whitman to discuss his new Cato Institute policy analysis, coauthored with Raymond Raad, “Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation.”
Whether it’s Nobel laureates in medical fields or the most important recent medical innovations, Whitman and Raad find that the U.S. has contributed more than any other nation, and in some cases, more than all nations combined. Whitman cites some key factors that account for America’s innovative ways, and warns that if America adopts a more centrally planned health system we may not only innovate less but we might not know what innovations we’re missing.
Interview shot by Alex Manning and Hawk Jensen; it was edited by Manning. Approximately 10 minutes.
Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable versions.
Duration : 0:9:13
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Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It took part in negotiating the European Economic Area agreement with the European Union. It signed the agreement on 2 May 1992, and submitted an application for accession to the EU on 20 May 1992. However, a Swiss referendum held on 6 December 1992 rejected EEA membership. As a consequence, the Swiss government decided to suspend negotiations for EU accession until further notice. Its application remains open.
thank goodness …
thank goodness someone finally speaks up that us paying higher cost for new tech and drugs is what allows drug companies to comply with reduced price laws in other countries
if we deregulated …
if we deregulated insurance and health care and there was competition then we would see prices go down like LCD tv prices have plummeted
I’ve had this …
I’ve had this arguement with megarational before–repeatedly. He sees no way for society to progress unless it is ordered to do so. He lacks the imagination to see that most of what works in our society–in all societies, is the child of freedom.
EU plus Switzarland …
EU plus Switzarland???
Switzarland is an EU member state like any other EU member state so they are not seperate but the same.
Like saying the US plus Florida.
Humor is …
Humor is intelligent and eloquent.
Using humor to point out the obvious contradictions in single payer is a deserving critique.
History is crystal clear. State controlled economies always fail. State managed industries always fail.
It amazes me that people living a free-market economy, with the best standard of living… can point to the outright disaster of communist philosophy and say “Hey, lets do that too!”
hsfbunny, …
hsfbunny, megarational, I’m all for debate and argument, but perhaps you could do it in a private message? Or maybe be a bit more intelligent/ Eloquent?
This would slash …
This would slash costs, and make affordable coverage for 98% of the population.
Health care would be high quality and low cost, like every other free market.
You could buy coverage for less than the cost of an average cell phone plan.
Can’t afford it? What is affordable to you?
Zero?!
If it is “zero”, then good luck reaching it.
If YOU want to pay for someone’s health care, then YOU pay for it.
No matter how you twist it, your plan involves sticking a gun in my back and taking it.
Your solution, as …
Your solution, as you know, results in basic health care only for those that can afford it.
I think that speaks for itself.
Nurse practitioners …
Nurse practitioners setting up in Walmart: $15 flue shots, exam and drug prescription for $40.
This would create a free market. Only number 2 has a control on insurance regulation.
If you can figure out how all those points work, then you deserve an honorary degree in economics.
This would solve our problem.
For the next 100 years, anyone supporting socialized health care would be considered a fool.. That is, until people forget what they have.
Good luck.
Watch and see …
Watch and see medical costs drop by 60% in the first 10 years, and continue to drop going forward.
Watch as doctors open clinics in shopping malls, advertise affordable quality care, send you mail inviting you to their new office for a free checkup..
3. Deregulate the …
3. Deregulate the insurance industry so insurance companies can operate nation wide (example: due to gov regulation, Alabama has one insurer for the whole state creating a high cost monopoly).
4. End tax breaks for employers to provide medical insurance to employees.
5. End all government paid medical programs.
Watch and see medical costs drop by 60% in the first 10 years, and continue to drop going forward.
The solution? You …
The solution? You want to see medical care get cheap? Just like a Big Mac? Here you go.
1. End all government mandates for emergency rooms to provide care.
2. Make all medical insurance illegal. Except for standard high deductible “catastrophic” medical insurance. (Minimum out of pocked deductible $2,500. Wellness checkups free.)
And as to a Big Mac …
And as to a Big Mac, or any other MacDonald burger, being food there is some debate on that.
still haven’t heard …
still haven’t heard your solution.
By the way, Big Mac’s have gotten more expensive as they continued to shrink in size. Irrelevant I know, but irrelevant and simplistic seems to be what you are all about.
And your preferred …
And your preferred solution was what?
d) proceed with …
d) proceed with some of the other cost saving measures in the h.c. bills, such as increased focus on preventative care & supplier reimbursements models based on successful treatment of a condition as opposed to the number of tests & procedures done, & (e) continue to study other systems for any aspects that are effective.
My opinion is that …
My opinion is that a sol’n holding most most promise is (a) single payer for massive cost savings & universal access to good basic h.c. ( b) leave private insur. Cos free to offer supp. insur. & Cadillac plans for those that can afford them: ( c) maintain the U.S. pace of technological development by methods such as but not limited to increased funding for research, including private research co.s who would still be profit driven from the patent laws pertaining to new discoveries;
I notice that you …
I notice that you yet again failed to offer your solution to rising h.c. costs & increasing no. of uninsured, & the resulting unsustainable effects on the fed. budget.
Is juvenile sarcasm the limit of your imagination & intellectual ability?
Also, if single payer destroys the free market, why does Canada, with u.h.c. financing, still have a healthy private insurance industry?
A Big Mac is food. …
A Big Mac is food. You need food in order to live.
Don’t eat, you die.
Don’t get a skin cancer treatment, you die.
The market responds to both products exactly the same. They are intrinsically identical.
The free market, and technology has made food incredibly affordable
540 calories for $1 dollar!
Ask a starving African what is more important: a Bic Mac, or a skin cancer treatment.
A starving man will pounce on a Big Mac like it was delivered by God himself!
Oops.. to be more …
Oops.. to be more clear on the last line..
A police officer (gov agent) finds a woman being raped, and kills (delegated gov use of violence) the attacker, the officer has acted virtuously.
Wrong.
You right …
Wrong.
You right to self defense is always virtuous, even when delegated to someone else.
An individual can delegate to government their right to self defense as a third party, to act on their behalf.
Just as small woman would be physically unable to defend herself from a large thug.
She can hire an armed security guard to protect her life/property.
A police officer (gov agent) finds a woman being raped, and kills (delegated gov use of violence) the the attacker is acting virtuously.
Over the past 50 …
Over the past 50 years the government has increasingly regulated, paid for, or incentivized health care.
The correlation is this: government interferes in health care… prices go up.
Prices went up, so government interferes some more.. prices go up again… and on, and on..
This has continued to where we are today.
Smart enough to plan your health care utopia, but too stupid to figure this out?
How about this? Leave me the alone.
Oh but you cant, you needed me to pay for it.
To quote you “save …
To quote you “save money & provide universal access with a single payer system”.
Single payer totally destroys the free market.
So which is it genius?
Single payer, government monopoly?
Highly regulated, what we have today?
Free market, dead seance 1930?
By the way, you …
By the way, you quoted some “changes” that have occurred over the last 25 years. Why didn’t you mention changes like h.c. insurance premiums continuing to increase faster than wages, or the increases in the number of Americans w/o h.c. insur. , or the change that continues with another 14,000 Americans losing h.c. insurance every day?