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Comments on: Is medicine a money pit? http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/ The Visible Hand in Economics Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:01:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Where have all the socialists gone? « The visible hand in economics http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-307 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:01:48 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-307 […] have all the socialists gone? Over at Cato Unbound the health care debate rages on. David Cutler and Dana Goldman reply to Robin Hanson’s original article by almost […]

]]> By: rauparaha http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-306 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:23:44 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-306 I’m not sure that the study mentioned provides evidence that moral hazard doesn’t occur. There are three things to consider with respect to the moral hazard: first, the fact that people live less healthily may not result in lower health relative to another country, if health care is correspondingly ‘better’. Secondly, the moral hazard arises because the government is effectively insuring the populace against health problems. A similar effect is likely to be seen when a person has private health care insurance, dependent upon the effectiveness of the other incentives built in to the insurance contract. Finally, I doubt that the level of government health care funding is the primary explanation for a country’s level of health. My post mentions that environmental concerns are far more important for goods health, and I think it’s unlikely that these things are constant between the US and UK.

]]> By: r a http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-305 Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:43:07 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-305 “If health care is seen as a substitute for a healthy lifestyle then cheaper health care may lead to people living less healthily than they otherwise would if they had to pay for their own health care.”

In theory, maybe. The 2006 study “Disease and Disadvantage in the US and England” reported that Americans are significantly less healthy than the English. England is on a(mostly) socialized health care system; so where is the effect of this moral hazard?

]]> By: CPW http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-304 Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:36:33 +0000 http://tvhe.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/is-medicine-a-money-pit/#comment-304 I like the idea that healthcare is bad for us via encouraging moral hazard.

It’s not strictly a problem with government provision, though, I think Hanson attributes the underlying problem to either people’s ignorance or a social norm of signalling care.

It seems it would be very hard to overcome people’s false beliefs about the value of healthcare. Especially as there is seemingly a strong preference for insulation (Arnold Kling’s term) from health care costs . People are willing to pay a large amount of money to never have to think about these issues.

Was anyone else surprised at the claim that “large and significant lifespan effects: a three year loss for smoking, a six year gain for rural living” – ie, living in (US) cities is twice as bad as smoking. Where are the public health campaigns designed to get us to move to the sticks?

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