PS: I will be talking about alternatives to Obamacare on Wed Dec 4 at the Cato Policy Perspectives event in Chicago.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Health economics and cognitive dissonance
PS: I will be talking about alternatives to Obamacare on Wed Dec 4 at the Cato Policy Perspectives event in Chicago.
11 comments:
Comments are welcome. Keep it short, polite, and on topic.
Thanks to a few abusers I am now moderating comments. I welcome thoughtful disagreement. I will block comments with insulting or abusive language. I'm also blocking totally inane comments. Try to make some sense. I am much more likely to allow critical comments if you have the honesty and courage to use your real name.
Define few.
ReplyDeleteWhy? let's agree it's not going anywhere at this point. Rather than talking about alternatives, let's talk about how we can make it better within current framework. Why not be constructive ?
ReplyDeleteWhy in the world should we agree to that? When the "current framework" is a mess, why should we not talk about clean, workable, alternatives? I thought I am being "constructive". Yes, I want to talk about alternatives, not just repeal.
DeleteThe fact this thing was passed doesn't make it a eternal commandment.
DeleteStop pretending as if laws passed by Congress must and cannot be repealed and significantly altered. It goes on all the time. Obama has done it with this law repeatedly.
Right, but will these alternatives ever come to fruition, if repeal is not in the cards?
DeleteWe can make it better "within the current framework" by privatizing the exchanges, and removing the price controls and other regulations that are driving up prices and creating artificial scarcity. Or we can simply allow both consumers and providers to apply for shall issue waivers, instead of allowing only the people with the best visibility or access to the government get waivers. Let the people who like the ACA participate in the ACA.
DeleteThe more of it we remove, the better, even within the current framework. Why not extend that to a full repeal, and apply the same basic principles to broader health regulation?
Price and cost are not the same thing. Prices are advertised and sometimes negotiable. Costs are incurred.
ReplyDeleteI thought the idea behind reducing costs was to decrease prices (and if you argue that negotiated prices actually decreased, I would love to see a study on that). But for the good news ... at least on "average" the NYT is a "center" media outlet.
DeleteCheers!
I guess you have a point, Frank. If fewer people use healthcare, than total costs will indeed go down. Nice work ACA. Unless you count needless suffering and untreated illness and injury as costs...
DeleteJason,
DeleteCognitive Dissonance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_Dissonance
"Ultimately, individuals who hold two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas and/or values frequently experience cognitive dissonance."
Holding the belief that prices are rising but costs are falling is not cognitive dissonance. It happens when a good / service is priced out of the market via substitution or falling demand for the good.