Economist Analyzes the Costs/Benefits of Health Care, even Vision Care

Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, examines the health care industry on NPR: "REINHARDT: Well, in a factory, you use a machine to produce the same output you used to produce before, perhaps with slightly better precision and less labor. But, in health care, very often machines of that nature make things possible that previously were not possible. You will see that, for example, in eye surgery, so you get better outcomes previously not attainable.

"One way economists think about it is to imagine doing a survey of people and asking if you could get the technology in health care of 30 years ago and the cost, or you could have today's technology at today's cost, which would you prefer? And the answer probably would be overwhelmingly today's technology at today's costs." Read more.