The Government Doesn't, Can't, and Won't Know

The economists who wrote the CEA report on health-care reform start by assuming first that the government is omniscient. They don't say that, but that assumption jumps out of every line.

For example, the report says the government is going to sharply reduce health costs by

Looking systematically at what works and what doesn't in order to provide more high value care and less care that is of low value. For many types of medical conditions, a patient may have a choice of several methods or treatments, each having different benefits or risks. Systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments and dissemination of the results...

The Government Doesn't, Can't, and Won't Know

The economists who wrote the CEA report on health-care reform start by assuming first that the government is omniscient. They don't say that, but that assumption jumps out of every line.

For example, the report says the government is going to sharply reduce health costs by

Looking systematically at what works and what doesn't in order to provide more high value care and less care that is of low value. For many types of medical conditions, a patient may have a choice of several methods or treatments, each having different benefits or risks. Systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments and dissemination of the results of these examinations to patients and providers is one mechanism for promoting high value health care.

You will notice in reading Obamaspeak on health policy a distinct lack of nouns. Just who is going to look systematically at what works and what doesn't? And just who is going to conduct those "systematic examinations of the merits of different treatments?" And will whoever that is really know what works and what doesn't for 300 million patients across America, and "the merits of different treatments"?

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