Mankiw quotes CBO on medical Spending

hby Spencer

On Monday Greg Mankiw quoted a CBO study on health care spending.

An Ounce of Prevention
…is expensive, says CBO:the evidence suggests that for most preventive services,expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall.

That was the end of his quote from the study. He did not quote the part of the study that followed.

Of course, just because a preventive service adds to total spending does not mean that it is a bad investment. Experts have concluded that a large fraction of preventive care adds to spending but should be deemed “cost-effective,” meaning that it provides clinical benefits that justify those added costs.

And some people wonder why he quit allowing comments at his blog.