Can Government Ever Do Things Better And Cheaper? Yes

Los Angeles Times business reporter Michael Hiltzik addresses the question of whether government can ever do things better than private enterprise. His answer: Yes.

"Here's a rule of thumb to consider," Hiltzik writes,  "for when government should take a role in providing a service: When it's cheaper." He means, cheaper for the country as a whole.

He examines in particular the consequences of raising the age of eligibility for Medicare. It would save 5.7 billion in the federal budget this year alone. "Of course," he points out, "it does horrors for the budgets of everyone else."

Hiltzik summarizes: "Put it all together, as health economist Austin Frakt did, and you find that saving that $5.7 billion on the federal books would cost society as a whole $11.4 billion. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, this is how you save money in the Bizarro world. It does nothing to improve Medicare. It does nothing to hold down healthcare costs. It does nothing to improve the health of the target population."

And "by the way, the higher costs would hit middle-class seniors especially hard."

As we used to say in the Pentagon: "that's dumb - let's do it!"

Speaking of the Pentagon, if the trend in recent decades of outsourcing military functions to private industry is cheaper and better than having the military do it, those results aren't apparent.

Hiltzik provides many examples of good, efficient government programs.

Worth reading.