It is an article of faith within the GOP that the way to lower health care costs is to suppress demand by requiring consumers to have lots of “skin in the game.” Relative to European systems, however, this simply isn’t true; the American system is vastly more expensive because unit prices for everything are much higher, not because deductibles are lower. This in turn is due to the fact that European governments intervene far more aggressively in the health care markets than does the American government, even after ACA.
The few conservative commentators who are honest about this will say that higher unit costs are the price we pay for innovation and a growing and prosperous health care sector, which is true. The real question is, is the trade-off worth it? Are stagnant wages, high prices for our products, and mediocre health care outcomes on a macro level an acceptable price to pay for cutting edge treatment for rich people and wealthy health care and drug providers? If not, what are we willing and able to do about it?
That is the health care debate we need to have. So far, I’m not hearing it.