Well to be fair I do think there is a cost disease in medicine and a pile of money. It's just that the pile of money consists of payment for actual medical treatments given to non-fraudulent people.
There's no shortage of evidence that marginal medical consumption doesn't improve health at all up to and including 3 RCTs (RAND, Oregon and Karnataka) and one national medical system designed to reduce this waste (Singapore). The basic idea is that if medicine has a low marginal cost, people consume more of it even if they don't need it. It makes them feel better but doesn't improve health.
In contrast, if you make them pay 70-90% of the cost (up to a high cap), they don't spend money unless they really need it.
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Notes -
Well to be fair I do think there is a cost disease in medicine and a pile of money. It's just that the pile of money consists of payment for actual medical treatments given to non-fraudulent people.
There's no shortage of evidence that marginal medical consumption doesn't improve health at all up to and including 3 RCTs (RAND, Oregon and Karnataka) and one national medical system designed to reduce this waste (Singapore). The basic idea is that if medicine has a low marginal cost, people consume more of it even if they don't need it. It makes them feel better but doesn't improve health.
In contrast, if you make them pay 70-90% of the cost (up to a high cap), they don't spend money unless they really need it.
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