Start by helping patients act like sensible consumers: Replace the tax deduction for health insurance, which costs some $200 billion a year in forgone taxes, with a less generous tax credit that insulates lower-paid workers, while discouraging the rest from buying overgenerous plans.
(Such pensions, no matter how overgenerous, are protected by law).
That is overgenerous, but makes the region's pledge to hit 1.3% this year more credible.
It urged a greater focus on spending cuts and pointed at overgenerous pension schemes and heavy public administration.The government realises that cuts are inevitable.
And they are doing all this without sacrificing what makes the Nordic model so valuable: the ability to invest in human capital and protect people from the disruptions that are part of the capitalist system.Getting to DenmarkMost of the rich world now faces the same problems that the Nordics faced in the early 1990s out-of-control 1990s out-of-control 1990s out-of-controlent publicmmespending
Dodgy deals with cronies, soft loans for themselves, allegedly irregular salary and pension packages, inflated golden handshakes and overgenerous fees for attending rubber-stamp meetings are all being scrutinised.There are also differences in the laws that can be applied.
And government debt is rising due to overgenerous civil-service pay and benefits (including index-linked pay rises twice a year).
Dirk Schlotböller, an economist at the chambers of commerce, says geopolitical tensions (such as those over Ukraine) and overgenerous government spending commitments should still give German businesses reasons for caution; but for now the chambers' member firms are telling him that things are looking up.
Ira Kay of Pay Governance, a consultant, says that in America, most company boards facing such votes have managed to win them by dropping overgenerous perks like the automatic vesting of the boss's share options even when he has kept his job following a takeover.
To their credit, the authorities are already trying to rein in overgenerous loan officers and overenthusiastic industrialists.
But for Brazilians the choice is between two current evils: accepting cutbacks in overgenerous handouts or continuing to put up with appalling infrastructure and public services.
