I guarantee you that if Americans had to pay out of their own pockets the crazy prices that hospitals charge for services, a much smaller share of U.S. GDP would go to health care. And, of course, the same would be true in the U.K. Smith ends his critique by writing: But I don’t think Levitt has a model. What he has is a simple message (“all markets are the same”), and a strong prior belief in that message.
