We spend a lot of money on health care. Many people would say we spend too much.

So if we're going to reduce the amount of health care spending, who's going to decide what to cut, and where?

Arnold Kling frames it this way: "The debate we should be having is over whether restraint in our use of medical services should be initiated by government officials or left to consumers."

He offers three ideas for letting consumers make those decisions:

For the poor, give them a bundle of money with which they buy services.

For the elderly, phase out Medicare and replace it with a system of tax credits. [I suppose this would build on the record of health savings accounts.]

For everyone else, deregulate insurance so that it becomes like fire insurance: "Few of us would make claims, and premiums would be affordable."