The "Introduction: Thinking about Reform" chapter of Lives At Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World was thoroughly evaluated by Dr. Steinreich in his Fall 2006 edition of The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics book review. I again encourage the reader to peruse Steinreich's analysis. Frankly his thoughts are more interesting than the authors's ruminations, so the next paragraph is my summary of both.
In the introductory section the authors list three "facts" about health care. In his review Steinreich ridicules 2 of the 3 "facts". Steinreich is correct.
For the reader unable to obtain a copy of Steinreich's review and/or the book itself, the contested "facts" are as follows: (1) "we can potentially spend our entire gross domestic product (GDP) on health care in useful ways," (2) "whatever portion of our income we are spending on health care today, we are likely to want to spend more in the future," and (3) "we have suppressed normal market forces in dealing with characteristics one and two." Steinreich notes the impossibility of the first "fact" and the bias toward allopathic medicine inherent in the second "fact". The reader may be surprised to learn that, though I am a practitioner of allopathic medicine, I fully endorse the critique of allopathy vs. homeopathy that Steinreich provides in his article.
In the introductory section the authors list three "facts" about health care. In his review Steinreich ridicules 2 of the 3 "facts". Steinreich is correct.
For the reader unable to obtain a copy of Steinreich's review and/or the book itself, the contested "facts" are as follows: (1) "we can potentially spend our entire gross domestic product (GDP) on health care in useful ways," (2) "whatever portion of our income we are spending on health care today, we are likely to want to spend more in the future," and (3) "we have suppressed normal market forces in dealing with characteristics one and two." Steinreich notes the impossibility of the first "fact" and the bias toward allopathic medicine inherent in the second "fact". The reader may be surprised to learn that, though I am a practitioner of allopathic medicine, I fully endorse the critique of allopathy vs. homeopathy that Steinreich provides in his article.
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