Re: Moral Hazard Myth
- From: "Skeptic" <bcs002b@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 01:14:27 GMT
"George Conklin" <georgeconklin1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8cZOe.1227$5B4.785@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "Skeptic" <bcs002b@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:2xQOe.276300$_o.52550@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>> "George Conklin" <georgeconklin1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:8BOOe.967$5B4.854@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > An article in this week's New Yorker magazine has provided the
>> > following
>> > data on the USA health system. I used to post we spend twice as much
>> > as
>> > average for an industrial nation but the New Yorkers says this has
>> > risen
>> > to
>> > 2.5 times with worse results than other nations.
>> >
>> > ---------
>> >
>> > ....the United States has opted for a makeshift system of increasing
>> > complexity and dysfunction. Americans spend $5,267 per capita on health
>> > care
>> > every year, almost two and half times the industrialized world's median
> of
>> > $2,193; the extra spending comes to hundreds of billions of dollars a
>> > year.
>> > What does that extra spending buy us? Americans have fewer doctors per
>> > capita than most Western countries. We go to the doctor less than
>> > people
>> > in
>> > other Western countries. We get admitted to the hospital less
>> > frequently
>> > than people in other Western countries. We are less satisfied with our
>> > health care than our counterparts in other countries. American life
>> > expectancy is lower than the Western average. Childhood-immunization
> rates
>> > in the United States are lower than average. Infant-mortality rates are
> in
>> > the nineteenth percentile of industrialized nations. Doctors here
> perform
>> > more high-end medical procedures, such as coronary angioplasties, than
> in
>> > other countries, but most of the wealthier Western countries have more
> CT
>> > scanners than the United States does, and Switzerland, Japan, Austria,
> and
>> > Finland all have more MRI machines per capita. Nor is our system more
>> > efficient. The United States spends more than a thousand dollars per
>> > capita
>> > per year-or close to four hundred billion dollars-on
>> > health-care-related
>> > paperwork and administration, whereas Canada, for example, spends only
>> > about
>> > three hundred dollars per capita. And, of course, every other country
>> > in
>> > the
>> > industrialized world insures all its citizens; despite those extra
>> > hundreds
>> > of billions of dollars we spend each year, we leave forty-five million
>> > people without any insurance. A country that displays an almost
>> > ruthless
>> > commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its
> economy-a
>> > country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more
> reliable,
>> > and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they were five cents cheaper-has
>> > loyally
>> > stuck with a health-care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out
>> > their
>> > teeth with pliers.
>> >
>> > ----------
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> What should we do about it?
>>
>
> The article implies that economists have been wrong about the moral
> hazard
> myth and have screwed the public over their useless theory. Under the
> myth
> of the moral hazard, we have given ourselves the most expensive medicine
> in
> the world with crummy results.
That doesn't answer the question I asked you.
.
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