16 April 2011
Use My Taxes More Wisely
Nicolas Kristof wrote in the New York Times of April 14, 2011, the following:
Congressman Ryan’s prescription for reforming Medicare is to rely on the market to incentivize health care providers to make the cost of medical services affordable by capping government expenditures with block grants to the states. Unfortunately, history tells us that most states are no more successful at living within their means than the federal government. The only real fiscal discipline for either of those spendthrifts will come ultimately when both of them are cut off by international financial markets.
President Obama is on the right track when he calls for rigorous research on the effectiveness of medical procedures. That is where tax dollars need to be spent. But just as urgent is the need for federal programs to educate the public on the relative advantages of healthier lifestyles and diets, and on the foolhardiness of relying on technology to make it possible to engage in self-destructive habits. That is almost as reckless as expecting the market to liquidate the national debt.
Nicolas Kristof wrote in the New York Times of April 14, 2011, the following:
The real challenge [in reducing the federal budget deficit] is to control health care inflation. Nobody is certain how to do that, but the Obama health care law is testing some plausible ideas. These include rigorous research on which procedures work and which don’t. Why pay for surgery on enlarged prostates if certain kinds of patients turn out to be better with no treatment at all?
Congressman Ryan’s prescription for reforming Medicare is to rely on the market to incentivize health care providers to make the cost of medical services affordable by capping government expenditures with block grants to the states. Unfortunately, history tells us that most states are no more successful at living within their means than the federal government. The only real fiscal discipline for either of those spendthrifts will come ultimately when both of them are cut off by international financial markets.
President Obama is on the right track when he calls for rigorous research on the effectiveness of medical procedures. That is where tax dollars need to be spent. But just as urgent is the need for federal programs to educate the public on the relative advantages of healthier lifestyles and diets, and on the foolhardiness of relying on technology to make it possible to engage in self-destructive habits. That is almost as reckless as expecting the market to liquidate the national debt.
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