EconLog’s Arnold Kling is one of America’s best thinkers on economic issues relating to the U.S. health care finance system (previous posts here), so this recent TCS Daily op-ed is required reading for anyone interested in the proper role of government in a reformed health care finance system. In so doing, Kling summarizes well the current state of stress in the U.S. health care finance system:

All of our health care finance systems are under stress. The government system is completely unsound–the Titanic headed toward the iceberg of unfunded liabilities. Employer-provided health insurance is a questionable concept in theory that is unraveling in practice. The individual insurance market is a disaster, with something like 3/4 of all families who do not get insurance through work or government electing to remain uninsured.

Kling sums up his view of the proper role of governement in reforming the health care finance system in the following manner:

I believe that there are things that government can do to enhance access, improve quality, and lower the cost of health care. However, I believe that we would be best served by having government focus on the policies that I put into the “good” category–clinics in poor neighborhoods, vouchers, high-risk pools, and better information on the effectiveness of services and the performance of providers. If we look to government to take a larger role in running our health care system, then my prediction is that things will get ugly.