News-Leader

Why have health care costs risen faster than inflation?

Simply put: government interference. Forty years of reform, including Medicare, Medicaid, and HMOs, have "insulated" recipients from the consequences of their actions ("The Cure," Dr. David Gratz). How? Paul Ginsberg (Center for Studying Health System Change) and Len Nichols (New America Foundation) have studied the situation, and conclude that, when someone else pays the bill, people use more...