Monday, February 08, 2010

Which Way, Not How Far   [Yuval Levin]

The Ezra Klein post that Stephen Spruiell ably critcizes below raises (by failing to see) an important point. The difference between most conservatives and most liberals on health care is not a difference of degree but a difference of direction — a difference on the question of which we way want to move from our existing highly inefficient system of paying for health insurance.

Both sides agree there are huge problems with the current system, and they even agree on what some of those problems are: there is a shortage of incentives for efficiency, and therefore costs are rising much too quickly, which leaves too many people...