This Is Not the Answer to Soaring Health Care Costs

By Lorens Helmchen and Tony LoSasso

Dr. Helmchen and Dr. LoSasso are health policy researchers.

With health insurance premiums surging again, a growing chorus of economists and policymakers has settled on a cure for American health care: Cap what hospitals, drug makers and insurers can charge. The idea shows up in many forms, including Medicare drug price negotiation, proposals to limit private hospital prices to multiples of Medicare rates, and calls for public plans that pay providers at government-set........

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