To Fix Health Care, First Try Rewarding Failure
By Ezra Klein May 25, 2011
Bloomberg
Tim Harford has an unusual fear about government failure. He’s not worried that the government fails too often. He’s worried that it doesn’t fail often enough. The British economist is the author of the compelling new book,"Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure."
In it, he warns that "we face a difficult challenge. The more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error" -- which is to say, failing and learning from those failures -- "becomes, relative to the alternatives. Yet it is an approach that runs counter to our instincts, and to the way in which traditional organizations work."
Health-care costs prove his point perfectly. Few policy problems are more confounding than the inexorable rise in health-care spending. It threatens the economy even as the health-care system fails at its basic task of making us healthier. But the only way to fix it runs counter to both our instincts and our political system: we need to allow ourselves to fail -- often, enthusiastically and, above all, constructively.
When you hear the words "health-care costs," it’s good to apply a quick mental auto-correct. What people really mean are "sick-person costs." When 5 percent of patients account for 50 percent of spending, you’re not talking about the costs that most Americans with health-care insurance rack up over the course of a year. You’re talking about the costs racked up by a tiny fraction who suffer from serious health conditions.
(More here.)
Bloomberg
Tim Harford has an unusual fear about government failure. He’s not worried that the government fails too often. He’s worried that it doesn’t fail often enough. The British economist is the author of the compelling new book,"Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure."
In it, he warns that "we face a difficult challenge. The more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error" -- which is to say, failing and learning from those failures -- "becomes, relative to the alternatives. Yet it is an approach that runs counter to our instincts, and to the way in which traditional organizations work."
Health-care costs prove his point perfectly. Few policy problems are more confounding than the inexorable rise in health-care spending. It threatens the economy even as the health-care system fails at its basic task of making us healthier. But the only way to fix it runs counter to both our instincts and our political system: we need to allow ourselves to fail -- often, enthusiastically and, above all, constructively.
When you hear the words "health-care costs," it’s good to apply a quick mental auto-correct. What people really mean are "sick-person costs." When 5 percent of patients account for 50 percent of spending, you’re not talking about the costs that most Americans with health-care insurance rack up over the course of a year. You’re talking about the costs racked up by a tiny fraction who suffer from serious health conditions.
(More here.)
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