Hmmmmm. As a former econ grad, I understand the supply side argument here. Prices should go down on a per unit basis with more supply though one could argue so would quality. But I dont know of overall spend would go down. I could easily argue we'd see more wasteful care, albeit, at a lower per unit cost.
We have got to figure out how to do less, more cost effective care, not just cheaper care. If we can do it cheaper, thats icing on the cake. We have to design a system around outcomes based care that forces real trade-offs for consumers. Giving away birth control isn't it. Requiring rich benefits isnt it. Adding more ortho surgeons isnt it. Lets incent consumers to see the most cost efficient providers and ding to see the costly ones (even the costly ones that appear to be low cost). And lets pay these docs differently too.
While its not a great analogy, we have drug stores on every corner. Yet, drug utilization has driven a lot of overall medical trend.
The reality is we need to consume less care, even better if its less costly and more efficiently delivered care.
