The health care industry is promising cost reductions. My Cato Institute colleague Michael Cannon warns us that the health care industry is not negotiating its surrender. Rather, it is negotiating our surrender–or at least the surrender of our money.
Writes Cannon:
So it may be that the industry’s overture is actually an effort to cook the books by ganging up on the CBO: “See, you silly number-crunchers? Even the industry believes these reforms will reduce spending.”
What’s in it for the industry? Universal coverage gives them a huge revenue boost in the short term – and then every lobbyist at today’s White House media event will fight those spending reductions over the long term.
The industry isn’t negotiating its surrender – they’re negotiating the surrender of even more of our money.
