Richard Epstein, "Can the United States Survive Health Care Reform?"

The recent health care bill represents what is likely to turn out to be the most comprehensive health care reform ever, Medicare included. Yet many of its provisions were included in the last minute without serious discussion or debate. And those provisions that have been in all versions of the bill since the outset are likely to have profound, if unintended consequences. In this talk, Professor Epstein will explain why he thinks that the combined weight of these many programs is likely to produce a major implosion in health care services in both the short and the long run. Richard Epstein is James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. This talk was recorded April 8, 2010 as part of the Chicago's Best Ideas lecture series.