Better choices needed to manage US healthcare cost growth, says Paul Krugman at HIMSS18

Economist Paul Krugman says more scrutiny on elective procedures could contribute to a long-term solution.

“Though the U.S. still has the highest healthcare costs in the world, there are a few options that could be used to dig out of that — any of which would be better than the current state, said Krugman, which he described with a quote from Homer Simpson: “The U.S. government is an insurance company with an army.” To Krugman, “Medicaid looks more like the systems in other countries and is a well-established system. But if the goal was the cheapest care, we’d do something like the NHS — but I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.” While a single-payer system is expensive, costs can be mitigated by a system that would more carefully scrutinize unnecessary elective treatments.” Read the full article.

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