What You’d Cut

A reader makes one early suggestion:

You made a good start, and I applaud your efforts. Another area where I think major savings could be made is in the area of health care. Indeed, the available evidence suggests that if the United States were to replace its current complex mix of health insurance systems with standardised, universal coverage, the savings would be so large that we could cover all those currently uninsured, yet end up spending less overall. That’s what happened in Taiwan, which adopted a single-payer system in 1995: the percentage of the population with health insurance soared from 57 per cent to 97 per cent, yet health care costs actually grew more slowly than one would have predicted from trends before the change in system.
That would also help us to deal with the pain of the other middle class entitlement cuts which are bound to come.

I’ve long feared universal health care but there are good and bad ways to do it. I’m certainly open to the idea that we may be reaching a point at which the inefficiencies of our current system may require cutting the Gordian knot. Mitt Romney’s idea of mandatory insurance, subsidized by government, is interesting. I’d like to sever the link between employment and health insurance. But I don’t want to go to a British-style system. Trust me, I experienced it.