Medicare Versus the Insurance Industry: A Privatization-Driven Arms Race [by Paul Krugman]
Medicare Versus the Insurance Industry: A Privatization-Driven Arms Race [by Paul Krugman]
Forty years of gaming the system
Why do liberals still communicate the idea that privatization was done in good faith? For anything other than greed, corruption, or cruelty?
You could be forgiven for this perspective 30 years ago, but it's 2025. We have literally hundreds of examples of privatization all over the world, and hundreds of examples of it achieving less at a higher cost.
The people controlling the popular media don't like those sorts of news stories.
The problem that he has is one of perspective. Anyone looking at the issue rationally would say that the system is working as intended. It was created to allow private companies to game the system. But Krugman doesn't see this.
In fact, it's really obvious, because he talks about how few people want to see government-owned factories. But is that true? I think it might depend what the factories are making. For example, I think that weapons factories should be government owned and government run.
In other words, his pro capitalism bias creates a giant blind spot whenever he talks about health insurance. There's just a whole conversation that he will never be able to have because his values are so strongly aligned in favor of supporting a system that benefits the ultra-rich.
Krugman is an economist, so he looks at the economics. When a physician looks at a patient, you probably would not be satisfied if they just said: "The patient is simply very old." Even if that is objectively correct.
Most importantly, such a big picture answer doesn't suggest any solution.
Precisely. A good responsible economist would remind themselves and their readers why the work they do matters. Especially if they write for a major newspaper. Krugman is unable to do this, which I think makes most of his work destructive.
This was a really good read. I learned a lot.