And that’s precisely what’s obstructing any meaningful reform.
Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt talks about how the American people wants to have their cake and eat it too, and devises an “all-American wish list” of what ideal reform should look like to the American public.
It includes such items as, “Cost-effectiveness analysis should never be the basis of any coverage decision by public or private third-party payers in health care, for to do so would put a price on human life — which, in America, unlike everywhere else, is priceless,” and, “Americans have a moral right to life-saving and potentially highly expensive medical care, should they fall critically ill, even if they are uninsured and could not possibly pay for that care with their own financial resources.”
He’s not joking. Nobody, and that means patients, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and Big Pharma, is willing to make any sacrifices. And, in effect, that means any proposed reform should not create winners or losers, “but only winners.”
Good luck devising such a plan.
