Incentives & ObamaCare: The Looming Failure
Warren Meyer, Forbes
Last week, I discussed information problems that were fundamental to third-party payer health care systems like Obamacare. By eliminating the prosaic act of shopping, the government has cut themselves off from critical information about the preferences and tradeoffs made by three hundred million Americans. As a result, any attempts to set pricing top-down are doomed to failure, as evidenced by the impossibility of implementing the “doc fix” to change Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors.
Last week, I discussed information problems that were fundamental to third-party payer health care systems like Obamacare. By eliminating the prosaic act of shopping, the government has cut themselves off from critical information about the preferences and tradeoffs made by three hundred million Americans. As a result, any attempts to set pricing top-down are doomed to failure, as evidenced by the impossibility of implementing the “doc fix” to change Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors.
Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/02/18/incentives_amp_obamacare_the_looming_failure_250743.html