Up or down, medical prices don't matter--spending does.

The political battle over whether the recent drop in the medical care price index lessens or dramatizes the need for health reform is useless. In America's health care industry, prices are not meaningful, quality improvements go unmeasured, and relationships to other goods are distorted--all of which renders the medical care price index almost a worthless tool for policymakers. What the country needs is a new index, one that measures total health care spending.