In Hopeful Sign, Health Spending Is Flattening Out

I'm still digesting exactly what this means for health care policy, but if the growth in health care costs is being "driven by the number of treated enrollees as opposed to the cost of treatment," is that a problem?:

I'VE just gotten back from a breakfast event this morning sponsored by the American Council for Capital Formation. The guest of honour was Paul Ryan, chairman of the House budget committee and leading Republican policy wonk. Mr Ryan has received a great deal of attention for his ambitious plans to address America's long-term budget and health system difficulties, and he is now a central figure in ongoing debates over the debt ceiling. But less well known are his views on current macroeconomic policy. And that's unfortunate, because they're terrible.

In Hopeful Sign, Health Spending Is Flattening Out ? NYTimes.com. After my posts of the last two weeks which spoke to the growth of health care spending (link) and the coming-of-age of customer-driven health care (link), I was intrigued to see the same story break in the mainstream media, such as the Times article linked ...

A reader asks:

Years ago, the World Health Organization came out with a ranking of health systems that placed the US 37th. Over time, there's been a fair amount of controversy over the WHO's methodology, and so the Commonwealth Foundation began a new project to assemble a comparative international picture: They chose seven countries and conducted deep, ongoing polls of both patients and health-care providers. The surveys test experiences with the system, cost questions, efficiency, convenience, health outcomes and much more.

(cc photo by donielle) BA writes in to say I should write more about transparent pricing in medical services: