Health Care Innovation

Tyler Cowen does two nice things in today’s economic scene column on health care spending. First, he makes the case that the U.S. system is the leader in innovation:

[T]he American health care system may be performing better than it seems at first glance. When it comes to medical innovation, the United States is the world leader. In the last 10 years, for instance, 12 Nobel Prizes in medicine have gone to American‐​born scientists working in the United States, 3 have gone to foreign‐​born scientists working in the United States, and just 7 have gone to researchers outside the country.

The other nice thing is that he cites Crisis of Abundance:

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.