By Gerald Friedman
Dollars and Sense, July/August 2011

America’s broken health-care system suffers from what appear to be two separate problems. From the right, a chorus warns of the dangers of rising costs; we on the left focus on the growing number of people going without health care because they lack adequate insurance. This division of labor allows the right to dismiss attempts to extend coverage while crying crocodile tears for the 40 million uninsured. But the division between problem of cost and the problem of coverage is misguided. It is founded on the assumption, common among neoclassical economists, that the current market system is efficient. Instead, however, the current system is inherently inefficient; it is the very source of the rising cost pressures. In fact, the only way we can control health-care costs and avoid fiscal and economic catastrophe is to establish a single-payer system with universal coverage.

In short, the question is not whether we can afford a single-payer health-insurance system that would provide adequate health care for all Americans. The real question is: can we afford anything else?

(Gerald Friedman is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.)

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0711friedman.html

Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

It is great to have on board another economist from the academic community who understands the imperative of the single payer model. We should be hearing more from Professor Gerald Friedman.

Universal Health Care: Can We Afford Anything Less?

By Gerald Friedman
Dollars and Sense, July/August 2011

America’s broken health-care system suffers from what appear to be two separate problems. From the right, a chorus warns of the dangers of rising costs; we on the left focus on the growing number of people going without health care because they lack adequate insurance. This division of labor allows the right to dismiss attempts to extend coverage while crying crocodile tears for the 40 million uninsured. But the division between problem of cost and the problem of coverage is misguided. It is founded on the assumption, common among neoclassical economists, that the current market system is efficient. Instead, however, the current system is inherently inefficient; it is the very source of the rising cost pressures. In fact, the only way we can control health-care costs and avoid fiscal and economic catastrophe is to establish a single-payer system with universal coverage.

In short, the question is not whether we can afford a single-payer health-insurance system that would provide adequate health care for all Americans. The real question is: can we afford anything else?

(Gerald Friedman is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.)

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0711friedman.html

It is great to have on board another economist from the academic community who understands the imperative of the single payer model. We should be hearing more from Professor Gerald Friedman.