When it Comes to Health Care the NYT Is Protectionist

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:



When it Comes to Health Care the NYT Is Protectionist

Just yesterday the NYT editorial board was complaining about the threat of protectionism in discussing Senator Obama and Clinton's trade policies. Today, the editorial board discusses Medicare's financial problems and never once mentions the extent to which this is caused by protectionism.

The basic point is very simple. Every other wealthy country provides high quality health care at a far lower price than in the United States. If we want to lower cost then an obvious way would be to try to take advantage of these lower cost systems. It is easy to develop mechanisms that would allow for Medicare beneficiaries to take advantage of lower cost systems.

The argument for the gains from trade in medical services is exactly the same as the argument for gains from trade in cars and clothes (we can even use the same graph, we just have to relabel the axis), except the benefits are likely to be much larger in the case of medical care. It is inconsistent for the NYT to be so committed to eliminating trade barriers in manufactured goods but willing to tolerate much costly barriers to trade in medical services.

--Dean Baker

Posted by Dean Baker on February 25, 2008 5:27 AM


http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=when_it_comes_to_health_care_t

[Selatius]

1. Savings can start with dumping Medicare Advantage.

That's just a way to get private companies in on Medicare dollars. The studies done show that rather than helping lower costs by contracting out work to supposedly more efficient for-profit firms, costs have actually gone up simply because they tack on profit mark-ups to generate dividends for shareholders.

Then, they can repeal the Medicare "reform" passed by the Repubs and signed by Bush that prevents Medicare from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies on the price for prescription drugs.