Commenting on an article by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, Jonathan Cohn says this:
Reform, he notes, could eventually create a more rational health care system in which we don’t throw away so much money on administration, inefficient care, or unnecessary treatments. And less waste in health care means more money for other, more productive purposes.
Here’s one, slightly oversimplified way to think of it: Health care reform would help the economy in the short term–by increasing spending on medical care. It would also help the economy in the long term–by reducing spending on medical care. Pretty neat, huh?
It strikes me, not for the first time, that the arguments for healthcare reform and energy reform are parallel in lots of ways. You often hear them referred to by the punditocracy as "unsustainable campaign promises," candy handed out to lefty interest groups. But rising healthcare and energy costs are bleeding our economy. The point of spending a bunch of money now is to save a much, much larger bundle later.
