Greg Mankiw on Health Care Reform

Harvard economist and former George W. Bush adviser N. Gregory Mankiw wrote an excellent op-ed for the New York Times this weekend about President Obama's public health care plan. Mankiw writes:

Even if one accepts the president's broader goals of wider access to health care and cost containment, his economic logic regarding the public option is hard to follow. Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider. We don't need government-run grocery stores or government-run gas stations to ensure that Americans can buy food and fuel at reasonable prices. […]

This lesson applies directly to the market for health care. If the government has a dominant role in buying the services of doctors and other health care providers, it can force prices down. Once the government is virtually the only game in town, health care providers will have little choice but to take whatever they can get. It is no wonder that the American Medical Association opposes the public option.

To be sure, squeezing suppliers would have unpleasant side effects. Over time, society would end up with fewer doctors and other health care workers. The reduced quantity of services would somehow need to be rationed among competing demands. Such rationing is unlikely to work well.

Mankiw also notes that while politicians may promise today that the public option plan won't require taxpayer funding, the future is another story.

Read the full article here. Also, read Peter Suderman's take on the Public Option here and Ronald Bailey on the reality of the health care debate here.