Aaron Carroll argues that while government may not do everything well, there is one thing that governments absolutely do better than the private sector: “hold down costs.”
“They use central planning. They use their large market power to negotiate for reduced reimbursement… They buy drugs cheaper. They eliminate profit and overhead. This is what government does well. It’s why every other country that has more government involvement than ours spends less than we do… if your goal is to reduce spending, then allow government to do what it does well, and do that – even at the cost of the other things. But don’t argue that reducing government involvement is the way to reduce spending.”
Meanwhile, Austin Frakt provides extensive “evidence that public programs exert greater control over health care spending than private insurers.”
