Debunking US healthcare canards
For an economics piece (and in the New York Times, to boot), this is a beautifully succinct, clear article. Written by Harvard professor of economics, Greg Mankiw, it addresses three of the most frequently cited canards about the US healthcare system and its implications for the notion that free markets and prosperity are two sides of a very valuable coin.
It argues that the following statements, even when superficially correct, do not mean what they appear to mean:
- The United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, which has national health insurance.
- Some 47 million Americans do not have health insurance.
- Health costs are eating up an ever increasing share of American incomes.
The article is an object lesson in interpreting statistics, and as Mankiw writes, “As we look at reform plans, we should be careful not to be fooled by statistics into thinking that the problems we face are worse than they really are.”
