Markets in Health Care

Some people sing the praises of markets, and some don't. Some say that we need a free market for health care, and some say we've tried that and it doesn't work. Well, we've got markets for health care, but they're not what you might think.

The first market is for health insurance. The providers are the big insurance companies and the customers are companies that employ people. The customer wants to pay as little as possible and so if a provider charges too much, they go to a different provider.

The second market is for health care. The providers are doctors, clinics, hospitals and so on, and the customers are the big insurance companies. The customer wants to pay as little as possible and so if a provider charges too much, they go to a different provider.

Notably absent from those two markets are you and I.

I want a market where I am the customer. Which health care reform bill provides that?

Chivalry

This afternoon as I poured microwave popcorn into my wife's bowl first, I had a new thought. As with many things, if you have to do it, doing it doesn't reflect positively on you. Behaving in the manner of a gentleman towards a lady only matters if you might not have done so. In addition, making chivalry a matter of gender misses the point. It's better to be nice unilaterally, not out of social obligation.

Banning Compensation Decreases Supply

In the United States it is against the law to buy and sell human body parts. As a result many people who need an organ transplant die before a donated one is available.

In Canada, it is now "illegal to pay donors for sperm." As a result there is now a shortage, and sperm is being imported from the United States.

Is profit really worse than shortages that lead, in some cases, to death? I don't think so. People should be allowed to sell their body parts, pre- or post-mortem. It would solve many problems and save many lives.

How about instead you just give me my $12k?

A friend said something insightful in a recent email:

Imagine if someone tried to sell you the current system. They're going to take $1000/mo, $12k/year out of your paycheck. No, you don't have a choice. You then STILL have to pay a portion of your doctor's visits, basic procedures, and so forth, sometimes adding up to several thousand more dollars each year. And you have no control over what these services cost, or what your bill will be. Most of the time they can't even tell you that, and you just have to cross your fingers until the bill comes. Who would voluntarily choose THAT?

How about instead you just give me my $12k, and I'll buy my own insurance that covers catastrophic costs? I'm liable for the first... oh, let's pull a number out of the air... $12k of expenses (less the premium price), and if I don't have to go to the doctor for anything more than a yearly physical, I can just pocket the unused money. I can ask a clinic, "how much does this cost?" and they can tell me a single, nice, simple number. And if I don't like their price, I can shop around for a clinic that can do it for less. Can I have that? A $12k-deductible health plan can't cost that much, anyway. With the rest of the money my wife and I can tour Europe for two weeks every summer.

blog comment of the day

Seen here:

Yet another reason to conscript legislators. Perhaps with retention elections, "Do you like the incumbent, or would you prefer we draw another name from your district?"

That would solve a lot of problems.

The Jews In The Attic Test

By Joe Huffman, the Jews In The Attic Test asks: will this law make it difficult or impossible to protect innocent life from a government intent on their imprisonment or death?

I was surprised by how many laws fail this test. Check out the link for the author's take.

Perfect Creature

Tonight I watched the movie Perfect Creature. It takes place in an alternate universe where vampires, sheltered by the Catholic Church, survive by drinking donated blood. It's a steampunk movie that takes place in New Zealand. It's actually pretty good.

Conflict occurs when one vampire goes insane and starts murdering humans. His brother (another vampire) and a beautiful policewoman must track him down. Various plot twists and some violence ensue. The R rating is due to the frequent bloody wounds; other than that it's no more violent than prime time TV, and it was not as scary as I feared at first. (I'm not a fan of scary movies.)

I feel a little short changed by the 88 minute run time of the film. I would have liked to see more exploration of the philosophical aspects of an apparently immortal superhuman trying his best to do God's work in service to an unappreciative humanity. Perhaps what I really want is to encounter this movie in the form of a book.