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Uwe Reinhardt: A Response to John Goodman about the Republican Vision for Health Reform

"There actually is a current Republican vision. It has been expressed through the House budget resolution. I agree with Goodman, though, that in the past Republicans, John Goodman included, did offer visions on U.S. health care that differ sharply from the one expressed by the House and are worth considering."

Unpacking the Meaning of Health Care 'Rationing': A Response to Dowd and Allison

"[A]ccording to Dowd and Allison, rationing occurs only when limits are placed upon choices that some potential buyer of a good or service would otherwise be willing and able to make, and I emphasize here the words 'and able.' ... Dowd and Allison certainly are free to posit this as their definition of rationing. They should not assume, however, that their definition is universally shared, even among economists, nor should they assume that in the debate on health policy the more expansive definition of rationing, including price-rationing, is abusive."

Rethinking the Gruber Controversy: Americans Aren't Stupid, But They're Often Ignorant -- and Why

"How many politicians, for example, would forthrightly and bluntly proclaim on the campaign trail that, to control the growth of health spending, they favor the rationing of health care by income class, that is, by price and ability to pay? Yet that is precisely what they and their advisors are advocating when they promote health-insurance policies with very high deductibles and coinsurance. As any well-trained economist knows and some good textbooks in economics are careful to point out, prices in a market economy are instruments to ration scarce resources among people. So a market economy in health care that relies on high deductibles and coinsurance is not an alternative to rationing. It is just one of several methods of rationing."