A more rational approach to hospital pricing

In this blog posting in the New York Times, Princeton economics professor Uwe E. Reinhardt says health reformers around the globe have long dreamed of a healthcare system in which one lump sum is paid for the entire treatment of a given medical condition. Reinhardt says that this will not be done until far into the future, partial progress could be achieved by reforming at least the chaotic pricing within the hospital sector. His proposal calls for applying to all patients the payment method developed by Medicare during the 1960s and 1970s and mandated upon all American hospitals by the Reagan Administration in 1983.