Re: Moral Hazard Myth


"Skeptic" <bcs002b@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:TX8Pe.304250$xm3.241871@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "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.
>
>

Actually it does. If you negate a negative, you arrive at a positive. We
have numerous other examples from around the industrialized world and any
one of them would be better and much cheaper.


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