Our Health Policy Matters

It is hard to imagine a political strategy less likely to achieve its intended outcome while simultaneously harming the economy than shutting down the government to prevent the implementation of Obamacare. But that probably won’t stop Senator Ted Cruz from trying .  And unless cooler Congressional heads prevail this week, while he will do no real harm to Obamacare, he may well do harm to the economy. Obamacare is the law, shutdown or not.  And no matter what, on Tuesday you will still be able to go to any hospital in the country and get treated, your doctor’s office will still be open, and your insurance company will still expect you to pay your premium. But when the government is shut down, the stock market suffers.  And a few points on the downside in our stock market that are attributable to a single event may be more significant than you think. Let’s go back to 1995.  The Newt Gingrich-led House shut down the government twice – on Novemb...

It is hard to imagine a political strategy less likely to achieve its intended outcome while simultaneously harming the economy than shutting down the government to prevent the implementation of Obamacare. But that probably won’t stop Senator Ted Cruz from trying .  And unless cooler Congressional heads prevail this week, while he will do no real harm to Obamacare, he may well do harm to the economy. Obamacare is the law, shutdown or not.  And no matter what, on Tuesday you will still be able to go to any hospital in the country and get treated, your doctor’s office will still be open, and your insurance company will still expect you to pay your premium. But when the government is shut down, the stock market suffers.  And a few points on the downside in our stock market that are attributable to a single event may be more significant than you think. Let’s go back to 1995.  The Newt Gingrich-led House shut down the government twice – on Novemb...

If there were an award given for the worst health policy exaggeration of 2011, it might well go to Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and a chorus of others who call the Affordable Care Act “a government takeover of health care.” They make this charge to capture votes from a constituency that fears what life would be like if we had “socialized medicine.”  The problem with the rhetoric is this.  It isn't true.  If you look at who pays the bill, the United States already has socialized medicine. We just get less for our money than practically anyone else in the world. According new data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , no other country spends close to what our government alone does on health care.  Right now, the total government share of our annual per capita health care bill is around $6,000, or over 70% of the total .  Norway is next most expensive, but its total per capita bill is $5,352.  T...

If there were an award given for the worst health policy exaggeration of 2011, it might well go to Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and a chorus of others who call the Affordable Care Act “a government takeover of health care.” They make this charge to capture votes from a constituency that fears what life would be like if we had “socialized medicine.”  The problem with the rhetoric is this.  It isn't true.  If you look at who pays the bill, the United States already has socialized medicine. We just get less for our money than practically anyone else in the world. According new data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) , no other country spends close to what our government alone does on health care.  Right now, the total government share of our annual per capita health care bill is around $6,000, or over 70% of the total .  Norway is next most expensive, but its total per capita bill is $5,352.  T...