How to Reform Health Care

Here's my suggestion.  Declare that anyone who goes into a hospital and needs emergency care will be treated at the public expense.  Thereafter, however, the government will reimburse itself by garnishing the wages or Social Security payments of the patient, or if necessary confiscating assets, up to the value of the treatments paid for.  That should fix it.

Comments

[Nato]

That's largely how it already works, though not quite so blatantly.

[Nathan Smith]

Is it? Not exactly of course-- the government doesn't garnish wages or repossess houses to pay for health care-- but maybe private debt collectors do the equivalent thing. Well, let's tax employer health care benefits then, to reduce the incentives for cost insulation, and we should get the best health care system that's feasible given available resources. There aren't really any especially serious market failures inherent in health care provision other than the free-rider problem.