October 18, 2006 10:23AM 

# Leonhardt on Health Care Spending, Part II 

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

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[A few weeks ago](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/27/business/27leonhardt.html), David Leonhardt of the *New York Times* [wrestled](https://www.cato.org/2006/09/28/costs-vs-spending/) with the problem of health care spending. [In his column today](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/business/18leonhardt.html), he inches closer to the question he’s dying to ask: how can we reduce health care *spending* without increasing *costs*? (Here I see the fingerprints of Cato’s [Arnold Kling](https://www.cato.org/people/kling.html), whom Leonhardt cites, as well as GMU’s [Tyler Cowen](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/business/05scene.html).)

Readers of Cato@Liberty know I’m skeptical of a solution that Leonhardt offers: having the Medicare bureaucracy pay more for what it considers “quality” medical care. It’s not that I think “pay-for-performance” is a bad idea — I think it’s [a good idea that Medicare will undoubtedly ruin](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6557).

At [a Cato policy forum on November 2](https://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=3301), I will be joined by Harvard’s David Cutler, National Medical Association president Sandra Gadson, and former Medicare administrator Gail Wilensky to discuss whether that’s so.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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