“The problem of escalating costs comes in large part from consumers being shielded from price signals.”

Gruber also tells Capital NY that ObamaCare represents the last, best hope for a free-market solution to the uninsured, but ObamaCare is anything but a free-market solution. The best hope for a free-market solution would be to get insurance companies out of the way of routine care altogether. The problem of escalating costs comes in large part from consumers being shielded from price signals. Insurance should cover the possibility of large losses, not routine wellness and maintenance procedures. Getting to a retail climate would stimulate competition, encourage new providers to emerge, and allow for more innovation and improvement, just as it has in the areas that insurers won’t cover — elective plastic surgery and Lasik treatments. Insurers could then price catastrophic coverage much more reasonably to get the uninsured by choice covered, and safety-net programs for the poor could deal with the truly needy.