The Washington Post had a front page news story complaining that the health care reform plans being considered by Congress will not have major savings in part because they do not include tort reform. The Post tells readers that tort reform could save $54 billion over the next decade. Let's see, we will spend about $30 trillion on health care over the next decade, so this comes to less than 0.2 percent in total spending. Is this the best chance to have savings on health care? If the Post's editors were not such hard-core protectionists, they would be complaining that the health care bills do not remove barriers to trade in health care, which would offer savings that are hundreds of times larger. But free trade is apparently not on the agenda at the Post.
--Dean Baker
