You should read Jeff Levin-Scherz’s blog. Austin’s post on Uwe Reinhardt’s rate setting paper and subsequent banter made this figure from a recent post from Jeff stand out:
This graph (and other similar ones) show that increases in prices have been the primary driver of health care cost increases in Massachusetts (hospital inpatient care shown here). Full report of the Special Commission on Provider Price Reform. On a related note, higher prices are the primary reason the U.S. spends so much more on health care than do other nations. As Uwe Reinhardt once said “its the prices stupid.”
update: fixed typo.
