A number of reports purport to show that the U.S. health care sector lags behind those of other nations. I’d be the last to argue that our health care sector should be a model for the rest of the world. But those supposedly objective reports are often based on subjective value judgments about which people will differ. They also tend to overlook objective strengths of the U.S. health care sector.

For example, New York Times columnist Tyler Cowen writes today about how the United States leads the world in medical innovation. We spend far more on medical research than other nations, which increases our level of health expenditures. But the benefits of all that spending are not confined to our borders; they help keep the “ferriners” alive longer, too.

Cowen also draws a lesson from Arnold Kling’s book Crisis of Abundance:

The American system also produces benefits that are hard to find in the numbers. The economist Arnold Kling in his “Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care” (Cato Institute, 2006) argues that the expected life span need increase by only about half a year for the extra American health care spending to be cost-effective over a 20-year period. Given that many Americans walk less and eat less healthy food than most Europeans, the longevity boost from health care in the United States may be real but swamped by the results of poor lifestyle choices. In the meantime, the extra money Americans spend to treat allergy symptoms, pain, depression and discomfort contributes to personal happiness.

Those interested can purchase Crisis of Abundance here, or click here to watch the Cato book forum featuring the author, Sebastian Mallaby of The Washington Post, and Jason Furman of NYU.