June 3, 2011 12:47PM # ACO Debacle Exposes Obamacare’s Fatal Conceit By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE That’s the title of my latest *Kaiser Health News* [column](http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Columns/2011/June/060311cannon.aspx). Excerpts: > [Obamacare](https://www.cato.org/bad-medicine/)’s number-one idea for improving health care quality and reducing costs is to promote something called “accountable care organizations” in Medicare. That effort is sinking like a stone, because it – like the rest of this sweeping law – is premised on the [fatal conceit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fatal_Conceit) that government experts can direct the market better than millions of consumers making their own decisions… > > > The only way to improve quality while reducing costs is to give patients the incentive and the power to say “no” to inefficient providers. The [Medicare reforms](http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/PathToProsperityFY2012.pdf) that passed the House don’t [go as far as they should](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/hhs/medicare-reforms), but they are a good start. > > > For one thing, they would do a better job of promoting \[[accountable care organizations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountable_care_organization)\]. The House reforms build on Medicare Advantage, which already gives one fifth of Medicare enrollees the freedom to choose their own health plan. Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson [says](http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/LED-266312/ACO-Concerns-Elicit-Enticements-from-CMS-Berwick) the new law’s ACO program “is not as good as” Medicare Advantage when it comes to promoting accountable care. > > > And he should know something about that. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).