Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care:
and What We Can Do about it

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1.  What Do We Mean By "Too Much"?
     Cost vs. Spending
     Measurement Problems
     Relevant Comparisons
     Subjectivity of Values
     How We Know Spending Is Too High
     Policy Implications

2.  International Comparisons
     Percent of GDP
     Per-capita Spending
     How We Compare

3.  Why Health Care Costs Are So High
     Wealth and Culture
     Geography and Heterogeneity
     Sex, Crime, and Disease
     The Beginning and End of Life
     Technology and Law
     Can We Change

4.  Why We Spend Too Much
     Government Subsidies
     Taxation of Health Insurance Premiums
     Government as Regulator
     These We Can Change

5.  Non-Solution
     The Problem of the Uninsured
     National Health Insurance
     Managed Competition
     Mandatory Employer-Provided Insurance
     Socialized Medicine
     Conclusion

6.  Better Solutions
     A Fresh Start
     The NCPA Plan
     The ALEC Plan
     Conclusion

7.  Where We Go From Here
     What You Can Do
     A Parting Thought

Endnotes

Index