He comes out on the side of Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) as a political expedient alternative to the elimination of Medicare, Medicaid, and the repeal of tax exemptions for employer-provided health care.
I can't see how this would help control costs. Sure, it might reduce the individual cost of healthcare (pre-tax vs post-tax), but in aggregate the supply of available funds would increase (at general tax-payer expense) and push the demand curve out, raising prices overall. What happens to supply in all this?
One place a savings might be found is in reduction of tests done just to protect the physician from liability.
Also, the cost of keeping up medical billing companies is high enough that there might be a good savings if the local clinics and doctor offices didn't have to run all the paperwork for every checkup and infection.
I can't see how this would help control costs. Sure, it might reduce the individual cost of healthcare (pre-tax vs post-tax), but in aggregate the supply of available funds would increase (at general tax-payer expense) and push the demand curve out, raising prices overall. What happens to supply in all this?