Posner comments on Reform of the Health Care System:
The basic reason why so much money is spent on medical care in the United States is that people attach a very high value to their health. The frequent complaint that 15 percent of GDP is ‘too much’ to spend on health care is superficial. When 80 percent of the average family’s budget was spent on food, no one thought that this signified a ‘market failure’ in the food industry.
Here’s where he starts getting sarcastic — or iconoclastic:
The tax burden of government health programs is a matter of concern. There are several measures, though none at present is politically feasible, that would reduce that burden. One would be to eliminate all tax deductions for medical care. Another would be to reduce federal funding of medical R&D. This measure, combined with reducing patent protection for drugs and medical devices, would have the effect of slowing the rate of technological advance in the medical industry. Such slowing would reduce the amount of money that the government spends on Medicare and Medicaid because once an expensive new technology is developed, it is impossible for the government (or insurers for that matter) to refuse to make it available to charity patients.