The media’s refusal to accumulate any wisdom on the “whys” of our health-care system is also behind the willingness of so many to credit a recent moderation in health-care spending to ObamaCare, though that moderation began before ObamaCare was enacted.

The spending moderation is actually not dissimilar to that seen during the heyday of managed care in the 1990s and again during the 2000s as employers rolled out sharply higher deductibles, co-pays and health savings accounts. The moderation is not dissimilar to that seen in every economic downturn when companies chuck insured workers off their payrolls and fellow workers curb their health spending out of fear of losing their jobs.

Employers are stuck constantly trying to combat the inflationary forces that government policy fosters. That’s our best explanation of why health-care inflation waxes and wanes, though never to the point of falling in real terms. And it’s probably true now too.