A recent Reason magazine article by Peter Suderman on Medicare’s Whac-a-Mole approach to cost control is both an excellent analysis of why Medicare is in trouble and an explanation of one of the reasons we are having so much trouble in the rest of the health care system.  As employers trying to do the best we can for our employees, we don’t always see that our problems are linked to the way Medicare (along with other public programs) pays and doesn’t pay providers.  The fix for Medicare is going to create pain for non-Medicare consumers, whether as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s provisions or otherwise.  Prior to Medicare’s addition of 19 million consumers with fully subsidized care into the system, health care took up a steady 5% of GDP–now it is more than three times that, and rising. The article is well-worth reading.