William McGurn wrote an interesting opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal.   With the debate on health care reform still raging in the United States, many — including ourselves — believe that the country is moving the wrong direction on this (see prior posts).  Our biggest complaint about the Obama plan and its assorted congressional variants is that it does nothing to address the root cause of America’s out-of-control health costs — by far the most expensive in the world.   In the American system — which is less a “system” and more a hodgepodge of conflicting policy objectives — moral hazard runs rampant because the patient is rarely the person who pays the medical bill, or even the insurance premium.  Because they do not pay or pay only a small percentage of the true cost, Americans do not understand or appreciate the value of the health benefits that they receive from their employers.  This encourages wanton overuse by both patient and doctor and contributes to the spiraling cost. Read the rest of this entry »