Believe it or not, one point me and Ezra Klein agree on. Even with his socialist views, he admits that cost-sharing is inevitable. Finally, a bit of reality is sinking into the liberal thinkers:
But even though conservatives have embraced a crude, even regressive, form of cost-sharing, there’s a kernel of insight to their account. In 1965, the average American received a bit under $1,000 in health care, and paid $483 out of pocket. In 2006, Americans received $6,640 in health care, and paid “¦ $837 out of pocket. While total costs have increased by nearly 700 percent, out of pocket spending hasn’t even doubled. It’s not, however, as if we don’t pay for that spending. It just goes through premiums, and lost wage increases, and taxes. In the end, we pay it all, we just do so in a way that encourages using ever more health care, and thus paying ever more for it.
(via TigerHawk)
