James Pethokoukis thinks that Rudy Guiliani has fallen under my spell.

what Giuliani is doing is far more radical than his folksy debate answer suggests. Essentially, he is calling for the complete abolition of the current way healthcare insurance operates in the United States. It echoes the analysis of libertarian economist Arnold Kling, who argues that what Americans have right now is health insulation, not health insurance.

Also, Crisis of Abundance gets included in James C. Capretta’s discussion of some recent books on health care for The New Atlantis.

UPDATE: He doesn’t mention my name, but David Leonhardt gets my thesis.

The main reason so many people lack health insurance is because of its cost. And a big reason for that cost is the explosion of expensive, medically questionable care, be it knee replacement, preventive angioplasty or lumbar fusion. The route to an affordable health insurance solution runs straight through this thicket.

Along these lines, the three leading Democratic candidates have quietly come up with nearly identical ideas. Deep inside their health care plans, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Obama have each called for the creation of a national institute to figure out which kinds of medical care actually work. This institute would sort through the scientific research on, say, spinal fusion and help people understand when it may make sense and when it’s likely to be just another big medical expense that doesn’t solve anything.