On "tinkering".............................

From Walter Russell Mead.................................

A certain kind of health care wonk sees out-of-control prices and wants to regulate the already heavily-regulated health care sector even more. But the answer to our health care crisis is not more and more federal tinkering in the system; it’s opening up the system to consumer pressure and price transparency,while at the same time innovating new cost-saving ways of delivering care to patients. If we do those two things, any subsequent reform—say, expanding access even more—will get easier. But if we fail on those, the complexity of our system, the structural defects bankrupting us, and the aging of the boomers will limit the successes any top-down reform could achieve.