[ewood]

Good points but important to point out that driving down costs may not be a net negative. From Buffett's comments in the video he seems to be indicating that business are more likely to make investment and hiring decisions on the basis of high and ever-increasing health coverage costs than a change in corporate tax.

Capping or reducing healthcare cost as a % of GDP may help many other sectors to expand. On this basis politicians should first try to get the support of corporations to reduce their insurance costs, and try to change the argument - sustainable healthcare for all. This kind of corporate backing would counter the inevitable lobbying of pharma/medical corporations who will put their resources into countering any legislation that reduces their profit margins.

[JamesBarney]

The problem is that healthcare is more concentrated which always helps with lobbying efforts.

Pharmaceuticals are 5 large companies. The rest of the economy is 500. So let's imagine there is a bill that would reduce the cost of drugs by 50 billion dollars. Each non drug company would stand to save 100 million but each pharmaceutical company stands to lose 10 billion. This is a classic coordination problem, and free riding dictates the pharmaceuticals win everytime.

[ewood]

True. I think that if Buffett wanted to address this problem his best option would be to fund an entity that could lobby on this issue and match dollar-for-dollar pharmaceutical company donations for house reps and senators that were willing to push to reduce the cost of healthcare.

Tackling healthcare is one 'big issue' that could have a huge effect on the US economy and living standards. Seems a worthy 'legacy' project for Buffett to finance.