Slower Health Care Cost Growth: It's a Worldwide Pattern

Catherine Rampell noted in her column today the sharp slowing in health care cost growth in the last decade. This is an important point, which has received remarkably little attention. The Medicare projections and the budget projections more generally look far better than would otherwise be the case because of lower than projected health care cost growth. (It is hard to understand why the Obama administration did not try to take more credit for the slower cost growth.)

Anyhow, there is an imp...