Health Care Cost Inflation

Time and again, liberals have pinned the blame for health-care cost inflation on America’s for-profit care system. The explanation doesn’t hold up.
If the problem is profit, then why are Medicare and Medicaid costs rising faster than private sector costs in 2009, according to the government’s own statistics?
If the problem is profit, then why did Canadian public-sector health inflation rise almost as quickly as American private sector health inflation in 2009, even though Canada literally bans private insurance?

The truth is more complicated. Take Massachusetts. The state has already implemented universal health reforms closely resembling ObamaCare. And, yes, state bureaucrats already review private sector rate increases. Yet premiums didn’t just rise since the 2006 reforms – they’ve risen much faster than average.