More on the Economics of Healthcare

Back in July, I wrote a NY Times column about the economics of healthcare. Yesterday, my friend John Cochrane posted a lengthy response. I won't take the time to reply to all of John's points, but like everything John writes, his post is provocative and thoughtful. So I would encourage people to read it and decide for themselves.

John is certainly correct when he speculates about my motivation in writing the column:

It sounded like a good column idea, "I'll just run down the econ 101 list of potential problems with health care and insurance and do my job as an economic educator." 

I have always thought of my job as first and foremost being an economics educator, and my Times column is just one outlet.

I wrote this particular column around the same time I was writing about the economics of healthcare in a longer piece, which is designed to be an optional chapter for users of my favorite textbook. You can read the longer piece here.