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Special Contributor | Going Dutch in U.S. Health Care

By: Zack Cooper

Last month, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the Dutch health system as the best performer in a study comparing health care in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United States. That wasn’t surprising. In the four years since a significant package of health care reforms was enacted in the Netherlands, the Dutch have emerged with a health system that’s innovative, dynamic, and widely viewed by many health policy experts as a blueprint for a high functioning 21st century health care system. What did they do, what can we learn, and what ...

Special Contributor | Does Mandated Insurance Mean More Paternalistic Public Health Policy? Hopefully Not.

By: Zack Cooper

There are several questions I’ve been toiling over lately related to health care spending, public health, and paternalism. Here are three: If the state requires everyone to have health care, does that mean the state should necessarily have a larger role in improving public health? If my tax dollars or insurance contributions go to pay for a smoker’s lung transplant, is that unfair, and does it give me a right to snatch cigarettes from strangers’ mouths? And at the extreme end, does federally mandated health insurance also justify more paternalistic policies to improve ...

Special Contributor | The Choice is Simple: Slow Health Care Spending or Raise Taxes

By: Zack Cooper

There’s an election coming up in Britain, and it’s looking very likely that there will be a new prime minister residing at 10 Downing Street come May 7. Some commentators have compared Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who is surging in the polls, to President Barack Obama. Like President Obama, Mr. Clegg is young, smart and charismatic. He’s also campaigning to change politics in Britain. But that’s not the only similarity between British and American politics in this election season. Right now in both countries, there’s a push ...

Special Contributor | Health Care Reform: We’ve Really Only Just Begun

By: Zack Cooper

On March 23, President Obama signed the Affordable Health Care for America Act. This legislation will go down as one of the most significant pieces of social policy legislation that Congress has ever passed. Sure, the legislation isn’t perfect—no law ever is—but it expands coverage to 32 million Americans, makes the market for health insurance significantly more competitive, and provides help to millions of Americans who have struggled to afford their health insurance premiums. More significantly than that, the legislation represents a commitment to the idea that if ...

Special Contributor | Complexity in Health Care Can’t Be a Vice

By: Zack Cooper

Health care reform is testing the United State’s capacity to address big issues and has highlighted glaring flaws in the legislative process. What’s clear by now is that it’s tough to boil health care policy down into concise talking points and it’s nearly impossible to sell sensible reforms politically. This is a plague on all our houses. Ultimately, policy proposals that will reduce cost growth, expand access, and improve quality are bound to be complex. And what’s been evident over the last year is that in our current political climate, ...

Special Contributor | The Challenge of Monopolies in U.S. Health Care — England May Help Illustrate the Solution

By: Zack Cooper

The British National Health Service (NHS) and the U.S. health system are popularly regarded as two unrelated health systems with different values, different virtues, and different vices. However, despite their differences, these two health systems have historically shared a common problem: Large, seemingly immovable monopolies have slowed innovation and thwarted improvements in efficiency. And contrary to some of the stereotypes about the NHS, policymakers in the U.K. have had more success breaking up monopolies by increasing competition than has been achieved in the U.S.   In the U.S., private-sector insurers hold ...