Cato Book Forum on David Goldhill’s Catastrophic Care

In his new book Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father – And How We can Fix It, business executive and life-long Democrat David Goldhill explains the folly of thinking that new technologies increase health costs:

Today, I withdrew cash at an ATM and paid bills online, saving myself considerable time not having to stand in line at the bank, as well as the expense of envelopes, stamps, and gas to get to the post office. I called my wife, who was visiting her parents in rural Russia, for five cents a minute. I used a free application on my phone to find a good Italian restaurant, reserve a table, and provide me with a map and directions to get there. At work, I participated in a four-city video conference (the total cost for the hour was $50 – significantly cheaper than flying everyone to one location). I microwaved some leftovers in an oven that cost less than a tank of gas. I watched a movie on my $49 DVD player and a baseball game in high definition on a large-screen TV that I bought this year for a third of what I paid for one of the same size five years ago. I finished my day sitting down to write this chapter on a $1,200 laptop that has two thousand times the processing power of the first desktop computer I bought – for three times the price – in 1989.

I did something else today: I read yet another article explaining that technology is driving up the cost of health care and will continue to do so for a long time.

Cato will host a forum on Goldhill's eye-opening book on Wednesday at noon, featuring the author, Kavita Patel of the Brookings Institution, and me.

Click here to register before it's too late.