Reality Bites

From the Wall Street Journal on June 12, 2009:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124476804026308603.html

"...Health-care spending has outpaced the rise in all other consumer spending by nearly a factor of three since 1980, increasing to 18% of GDP in 2009 from 9% of GDP. This disturbing trend will not change regardless of who pays these costs -- government or the private sector..."

This is flat out wrong and the implicit assumption needs to be rejected. That disturbing trend from 9% of GDP to 18% cannot continue because people will make a choice between the costs and benefits of health care at a certain price. It is the rejection of the notion of constraints which underlies the whole health care debate. There is a limit to how much people will pay for health care; the only "crisis" is trying to contort reality as if that limit didn't exist.