Yes, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson does sometimes get it right and he is on the mark today in talking about the need to constrain health care cost growth. As the projections cited in his column show, rising health care costs will pose an increasing threat to living standards in the decades ahead. Changing the course will require some serious restructuring of the health care system. It does not appear as though the current reform package will bring that about. Of course, if economists and the rest of our policy elite were not such ardent protectionists, trade would offer an obvious solution, but these people just can't seem to understand the benefits of international trade.
--Dean Baker
