September 20, 2007 4:58PM 

# What if We Just Slashed Medical Spending in Half? 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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That’s the question Robin Hanson [poses](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in-half/) in the most recent issue of [Cato Unbound](http://catounbound.org/). His answer? We’d probably be better off:

> We could cut U.S. medical spending in half without substantial net health costs. This would give us the equivalent of an 8% pay raise.

Hanson entertains responses to his essay by distinguished health economists [David Cutler](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/12/david-m-cutler/use-a-scalpel-not-a-meat-cleaver/), [Dana Goldman](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/14/dana-goldman/half-right/), and [Alan Garber](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/18/alan-garber/watch-where-you-cut/) — who are not as dismissive of Hanson’s thesis as you might expect.

Hanson was my health economics professor. Only later did I learn he does not have a degree in economics. (Insert your own credibility-shattering joke [here](mailto:mcannon@cato.org).) As he explains in his [essay](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in-half/) and [elsewhere](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/06/disagreement_ca.html), “Most students in my eight years of teaching health economics have simply not believed me, even after a semester of reviewing the evidence.”

I was familiar with much of the evidence presented, and so I found Hanson’s argument plausible. But I am not so familiar with the evidence to be confident that I could find the holes in Hanson’s argument. So I did what any student would do: I put my professor on the hot seat with A‑list economists from Harvard, Stanford, and Rand.

So far, the discussion has been everything I hoped. But it hasn’t yet zeroed in on the heart of the contributors’ disagreement. I hope they will all stay engaged.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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