Private Sector May Show Congress the Way on Health Care Reform: New at Reason

Just because Congress can’t fix health care doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

That’s the message from the Health Transformation Alliance, 41 big American companies that have banded together to try to save money and lives on their own, without waiting for Congress to pass a new law.

But if these savings are such a great idea and so easily achievable, why isn’t the federal government doing these things?

One big difference, notes Ira Stoll, is that what the private sector hails as “savings,” in the public sector gets demagogued as “cuts.” Another big difference is the influence of interest groups, and their effect on incentives.

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