RUBE GOLDBERG GOVERNMENT

Megan McArdle explains why single payer healthcare won’t work in the United States:

“[T]his ridiculous hodgepodge, this hypertrophied Rube Goldberg apparatus, is not some startling aberration of the political process, induced by some Republican dark magic. This is the kind of thing the American political system produces. This is why all of our programs have a substantial element of the inexplicable and bizarre.”

And she is absolutely right. The only way to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare in the U.S. is to significantly reduce government’s role in healthcare.

It’s true across the board, by the way. Reduce the role of government in the development and production of almost any commodity and you’ll reduce its cost. [You may not want to, but that’s a different question.]