July 31, 2009 1:46PM # Socialized Medicine Socializes the Cost of Irrationality, Too By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Over at *The New York Times*’ Economix blog, health economist Uwe Reinhardt has [a fun post](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/a-common-sense-american-health-reform-plan/) about the fundamental irrationality of American voters when it comes to health care reform: > To be responsive, then, to the “simple common sense” of the American people, any proposed health reform must not reduce the revenues of hospitals, lest some neighborhood hospital may have to close; or of doctors, lest some doctors might refuse to see patients; or of the manufacturers of health products, lest they are unable to innovate; or of anyone on the supply side of the health sector, lest they go out of business and have to lay off employees. > > > At the same time, the “simple common sense” of the American people dictates that any health reform that fails to bend down the growth curve of future health spending — the current jargon for controlling health spending better — is unacceptable, too. But Reinhardt does not ask *why* the American public is so fundamentally irrational when it comes to health care reform. The answer is actually pretty simple: government has given us a health sector where everyone is spending someone else’s money. In such an economy, individuals can make irrational demands (cut spending — but don’t reduce my access to care!) because they don’t bear the cost of their irrationality. Professor Reinhardt closes, “Your homework assignment, dear reader, is to design such a plan,” one that satisfies the irrational demands of American voters. How about [a plan](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/let-customers-control-money-market-will-cure-health-care) that forces each individual to bear the cost of their own irrationality? That would improve our health sector — and public discourse. ##### Related Tags [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/).