April 16, 2026 9:51AM # Cato *Handbook on Affordability*: Health Care By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... Today, Cato releases [*The Cato Institute Handbook on Affordability*](https://www.cato.org/handbook-affordability). In our [chapter](https://www.cato.org/handbook-affordability/health-care), Cato Senior Fellow [Jeffrey A. Singer](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer) and I explain: > If subsidies reliably delivered affordability, the United States would be a patient’s paradise. Instead, it is the world leader in subsidizing and mandating health spending. Between tax-financed government programs and compulsory private spending, government [compels](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/11/health-at-a-glance-2025_a894f72e/8f9e3f98-en.pdf) US residents to spend 14 percent of national income on health care, a larger share of gross domestic product than *total* health spending in any other advanced country. Subsidies and compulsory spending are so extensive, US patients are [less sensitive to prices and wasteful spending](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2019/04/out-of-pocket-spending_de863902/fb38ab2e-en.pdf) than patients in nearly every other advanced nation. > > Rather than create more government subsidies, policymakers should eliminate supply-side regulations that reduce price competition and affordability. To make health care more affordable, federal policymakers must: - Remove regulatory barriers to quality, affordable health insurance; - Recognize foreign regulatory approvals of medical goods; and - Remove unnecessary prescription requirements, ultimately by eliminating prescription regulation. To make health care more affordable, state policymakers must: - Remove state regulatory barriers to quality, affordable health insurance; - Recognize clinician licenses from other states and ultimately eliminate clinician licensing; - Free clinicians to practice to the full extent of their training; - Remove employment barriers to international medical graduates; - Recognize competing medical school certifications; and - Repeal “certificate of need” laws. [Read the whole thing.](https://www.cato.org/handbook-affordability/health-care) ##### Related Tags [Affordability](https://www.cato.org/affordability), [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/).