Stanford economist Victor Fuchs’s expanded second edition of “Who Shall Live?,” which applies economic theory to health and medical care, has been released this month and is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1974. Fuchs spoke to Scope, a blog of Stanford Medical School, and expressed surprise at the impact of his book over the years.
As a longtime observer of the U.S. medical system, he said the new health care legislation doesn’t go far enough. “It’s basically a redistribution plan – it helps poor and sick people but at a cost to the rest of the population,” he told Scope. He favors a voucher-based plan to bring about universal coverage, control costs and improve health, but he acknowledged that such profound change isn’t possible in the current political climate. He remains optimistic that one day the United States will follow the lead of some other countries and find its way to a more equitable and more efficient health care system.
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