[ExI] robin hanson on health care

[BillK]

On 6/11/09, spike wrote:
>  On another topic, during the discussion of health care, I never saw mention
>  of Robin Hanson's piece, which he wrote nearly two years ago, but which has
>  an Orwellian ring of truth:
>
>  http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in-half/
>  <http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in-half/>
>


I've heard this before and queried some of the conclusions.

Basically, you can probably claim that around half the expenditure on
*anything* is wasted. The difficulty is that you don't know until
after the event which half wasn't needed.

Take insurance as an example. Most times it is a waste of money, but
when you need it, you really do need it badly.

Or, even car maintenance, as Robin quotes in the article. Probably
most people could skip the annual service bill with no harm done. But
some people will have a blown engine. Does this make the annual
service unnecessary?

There are specific arguments to be made in health care, like excessive
'end-of-life' expense. But that's a different argument.


BillK