I admire the work of Jonathan Gruber, but have a problem with his latest working paper. For one, he states simply that “the rapid rise in health care costs has been driven by quality-improving technological change.” This ignores the role of Medicare and insurance in creating the demand for that technology without regard to price.
Gruber then goes on to make this statement:
To fundamentally control health care costs we need to actually be willing to deny care that does little for health ? but which consumers now want. This would be accomplished either through government technology policy, medical standards, or global provider budgets.
Notice there is no recognition of the ability of consumers to make informed decisions based on prices. Blue Cross Blue Shield is putting price information online, in part because of the three percent of its policyholders with high-deductible insurance and health savings accounts (HSAs)>
