The conventional wisdom on health care reform is wrong. That's the title of an issue brief I recently wrote (available in PDF).

Here are a few things that just aren't so.

"45 million Americans don't have health care."

Wrong. There's a big difference between not having insurance and not having health care. The average uninsured person received $2,262 in health care last year.

"Getting everyone insured will lower health care spending."

Wrong. Much of this claim is based on the assumption that universal coverage will mean less money will be spent on emergency room care and health care in general. In the brief I cite three reasons why this is not so.

"Expanding preventive care will save the health care system money."

Wrong again. Preventive care can, obviously, prevent some treatments. But preventive care costs money as well. It's great, for example, that mammograms catch problems before they get too far gone. Preventive care can prolong life and contribute to quality of life. But we are fooling ourselves if we think that expanding the use of preventive care will always, necessarily save money.