The most important graph in health-care policy
The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation has a much prettier version of what is, to my thinking, the most important graph in health-care policy: It shows that we pay more than any other health-care system and, to add insult to injury, have ended up with more government than most of our competitors, too. It’s the worst of both worlds: a government-run health-care sector that is larger than the international norm, a private health-care sector that’s vastly larger than anything else out there and vast inefficiencies caused by the overlap and poor coordination between the two.
I’m sympathetic to the point of view that it’s worth paying a premium for choice, for decentralization, and to make sure there’s space for future innovation in health-care coverage and pricing mechanisms. None of that’s worked out very well so far, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be important in the future. That said, if you compare our health-care spending to the OECD average, you get a yearly premium of 7.9 percent of GDP, or $1.1 trillion, not to mention a larger government-funded health-care sector. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe our system is worth that sort of extra expense, do you?
Related: The hard truth about health care.
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Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein is the editor of Wonkblog and a columnist at the Washington Post, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Bloomberg. His work focuses on domestic and economic policymaking, as well as the political system that’s constantly screwing it up. He really likes graphs, and is on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. E-mail him here.
Suzy Khimm
Suzy Khimm covers the budget, economic policy, and financial regulatory reform. Before coming to Washington, she was based in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where she wrote for the Economist, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal Asia. Follow her on Twitter here, and email her here.
Sarah Kliff
Sarah Kliff covers health policy, focusing on Medicare, Medicaid and the health reform law. She tries to fit in some reproductive health and education policy coverage, too, alongside an occasional hockey reference. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Politico, and the BBC. She is on Twitter and Facebook.
Brad Plumer
Brad Plumer is a reporter focusing on energy and environmental issues. He was previously an associate editor at The New Republic. Follow him on Twitter. Email him here.
