Path Dependency in Medicare Reform

I first learned about path dependency when studying physics — but it surely applies to public policy, too. Despite the scholarly disputations about health reform, what drives most voters are not questions about the solvency of Medicare or beneficiaries’ access to care, but fear of change. Arguments will not change this fact: People change when the pain of not changing becomes greater than the pain of changing, but not before.

This can be the only explanation for the majority of respondents to polls (described here) which ask the foolish question whether “Medicare should remain as it is today” versus Paul Ryan’s proposed reform.

Read the entire blog entry at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.