I have a new article as the lead story of the latest print edition of National Review; it’s on the Medicare reform element of the Ryan debt-fix proposal and the unduly negative response to it. Here’s an excerpt:
The Obamacare “solution” for Medicare is nothing of the sort, and nothing new at all. It’s an approach that has never worked to control costs in the past, and it won’t work this time. All price controls ever do is drive out willing suppliers, after which the only way to balance supply and demand is with waiting lists.
The Ryan alternative starts from an entirely different premise. Its solution is not top-down cost-cutting but a more productive and efficient health sector. The only way to slow the rise in costs without compromising the quality of American health care is by getting more bang for the buck: making the provision of services to patients more efficient each year.
That can be achieved in health care the same way it has been achieved in other major sectors of the American economy: with a robust, well-functioning marketplace, filled with cost-conscious consumers. That’s the centerpiece of the Ryan Medicare reform.
Read the full version here (subscription required).
Also, a recent article at Kaiser Health News quotes me in response to President Obama’s remarks delivered with his own debt-fix proposal:
“It was so partisan and so badly received. Clearly he … just wants to try to position himself better, vis-à-vis the Ryan plan and posture politically for 2012 so he’s not going to get a deal.” Giving the Independent Payment Advisory Board more power to reduce Medicare rates, which Capretta says are already too low, will “start jeopardizing access to care for the patients and so it’s just it doesn’t make any sense.”
Finally, be sure not to miss Representative Ryan’s response to President Obama’s speech in a conversation at the invaluable new think tank e21.