Health Care Reform

After President Obamas' rambling and awkward press conference, the momentum for nationalization of health care insurance seems to have halted. Charles Krauthammer argues that Obama's push is all about politics, and that if he were serious in reducing medical costs, tort reform would be at the top of the list. He argues that the cost of malpractice insurance is passed on to consumers, and also that it inflates costs:

But the greatest waste is the hidden cost of defensive medicine: tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from lawsuits. Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law.

PS This is part of what economists call "rent seeking."