This Jane Galt piece on the government's inability to deploy effective health IT systems is a remarkable bit of work. The best HIT system in the country, after all, is the Veteran's Administration's "VISTA" system. No real arguments on that score, actually, and Galt even references a Krugman piece on the topic. And I do mean references. One line, no analysis, no impact on the rest of her theorizing that the government will surely screw this up beyond recognition. Just because they've already done it, doesn't mean they could do it again. So there it is: don't confuse her opinion with the facts.
Meanwhile, the private sector remains in the stone age. Forget electronic medical records, they're still experimenting with delivering prescriptions via pneumatic tube. They're so far behind that the VA has had to repackage their own software in free, open-source format so the nation's physicians can get a foothold. Curious how it's not even mentioned in Jane's post. Neither the government's successes nor the private sector's failures are able to derail an a priori assumption of the government's ineptitude and the private sector's endless adaptability.
