On Feb 12, 2009, at 2:37 AM, David Cake wrote: > I never understand how the Right ever fooled people into > thinking they were the ones who understood economics better. Because > this kind of thing is nonsense.
My sister spent years working in the field of medical cost containment in Seattle when Washington was famous for having the lowest cost of medical service of any state. She finally got frustrated and went back to patient care. She has horror stories. She would walk into hospital A with statistics showing that there per patient costs were 60% higher than at a hospital across town and that they could achieve tremendous saving with simple procedural changes that would not impact the quality of care. They would yawn and say they liked the way they were doing things. The reality is that hospitals are subject to zero market discipline. When was the last time a US hospital went out of business because a competitor had better cost control? The right talks as if the choice is between Daschle style bureaucratic discipline and market disciple. The reality is that the choice is between bureaucratic discipline and nothing. Chuck is absolutely correct that if you want to spend money for no discernible effect, health care is the place to do it. And I must be a lib because I actually think spending money for no effect is much better than spending it in Iraq. We should not discourage the US government from indulging in harmless wastes of resources. -- The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. -Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945) _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
