Sic Semper Tyrannis

David Gratzer hits the nail on the head with his new book, "The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care."

Your first hint this guy might be onto something is that the foreward to his book is written by Milton Friedman.

In specific, Gratzer's core insight (which I happen to agree with) is that the free market in American health care has not failed, for the simple reason that there is no free market in American health care. What we have is certainly not free, nor does it in any way resemble a coherent and functional "market".

The book is almost certainly a good buy, or you can read my essay, linked from the above paragraph.

In the past Gratzer has pointed out how the quantity of uninsured folks doesn't quite mean what most concerned observers think it means: rather than implying these people are vulnerable to "keeling over dead" for lack of health care, most of them actually pay health expenses out-of-pocket, have access to Medicaid, or simply use hospitals on a charity basis (which is the universal fall-back).

The real significance of a large quantity of uninsured people is that it indicates insurance is overpriced.

Kudos to Gratzer for noting (and broadcasting) this. Insurance should almost by definition be cheap -- when implemented correctly.