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My Take on the Public Option
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
... Click here to read my article in tomorrow's NY Times.
Health care is not a bowl of cherries
Paul Krugman —
... and Greg Mankiw basically argue that we don’t need a government role because we can trust the market to work — hey, we do it for groceries, right? Um, economists have known for 45 years — ever since ...
Debating the Public Plan
The Baseline Scenario —
... Greg Mankiw weighs in directly (as opposed to beating around the bush) on the public plan. Here’s the summary:
Recall a basic lesson of economics: A market participant with a dominant position can influence prices in a way that a small, competitive player cannot. . . .
If the government has a dominant role in buying the services of doctors and other health care providers, it can force prices down. Once the government is virtually the only game in town, health care providers will have little choice but to take whatever ...
The Arbiter of Ignorance
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
... 2. On the issue of health care, I think I also understand Paul's point of view. He would like a single-payer system and he views a public option as a Trojan horse to achieve that goal. In my column, I wrote, "for those who see single-payer as the ideal, a public option that uses taxpayer funds to tilt the playing field may be an attractive second best. If the subsidies are big enough, over time more and more consumers will be induced to switch." Paul was one of the people I had in mind (see ...
Monday's Daily News
Club for Growth —
... Obama Praises Climate Bill But Opposes Tariffs - Steven Mufson, Wash Post
The Lawmakers Who Pushed Climate Bill to Passage - Bob Cusack, The Hill
Axelrod Waffles on Obama No-Tax-Hike Vow - Josh Gerstein, Politico
Carbongate - IBD Editorial
Obama to Colombia: Military Base Now, Free Trade Later - WSJ Editorial
The Government's Customers Deserve Better - Frank Ryan, CentralPennBusiness
The Pitfalls of the Public Option - Greg Mankiw, New York Times
Interview with ...
CBO and I agree
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
In my recent Times article on the possibility of a public option, I wrote An important question about any public provider of health insurance is whether it would have access to taxpayer funds. If not, the public plan would have to stand on its own financially, as private plans do, covering all expenses with premiums from those who signed up for it. But if such a plan were desirable and feasible, nothing would stop someone from setting it up right now. In essence, a public plan without taxpayer support would be yet another ...
Costs versus Efficiency
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
... , is a controversial claim). But even if that factual claim were true, the argument would hardly be dispositive as to the greater efficiency of a publicly run system. As I put it in my Times article, "True, Medicare’s administrative costs are low, but it is easy to keep those costs contained when a system merely writes checks without expending the resources to control wasteful medical spending." ...
Thaler on the Public Option
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
... on the public option in the healthcare debate. He ends up about where I was in June when I wrote on this topic, but I think he is a bit too quick to "assume that the public option does have to break even and can’t make any special deals." I believe that many advocates and many opponents of the public option are making the opposite assumption and, as a result, see the public option as a route toward a single-payer system. (They disagree, however, whether that is good or bad.) That is why the public option is a bigger issue in this debate than Thaler would have us believe. ...
The Public Plan, Again
Greg Mankiw's Blog —
The possibility of including a public plan in the health reform bill is on the table again. Here are a few viewpoints on the topic: Robert Samuelson, Paul Krugman, Richard Thaler, and me. ...
