The Debate Over Administrative Costs Continues

Ezra Klein has another excellent post unpacking the issue of Medicare administrative costs. He argues that administrative cost comparisons are far more difficult than they may seem, and the entire debate is a bit of a distraction anyway.

The bottom line:

[N]o matter how good you got at slashing administrative costs, they will never be a panacea to the problems of the system. Rick Kronick, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego, has done some of the best work on administrative costs, and he summed the situation up quite well. "The main question," he said, "is why are health care costs going up at 2.4 percent a year faster than GDP? And most of the answers to that question have nothing to do with administrative costs . . . ."

A friend also directed me to this article discussing health care costs and treatment options. Definitely worth a read.