The Fallacy in Lowering Healthcare Costs
Filed Under: Anything Peaceful
Tags: cost • healthcare reform • opportunity cost
No one understands or explains healthcare economics better than John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis. His latest brings some badly needed clear thinking to the subject of cost. Read it here.A taste:
…the only “cost” that really matters is “social cost.” That is the cost to all of us collectively. I can always lower my private cost of care if I can get you to pay part of the bill. And you can always lower your private cost of care if you can find a way to shift some of your health care costs to me. These observations are both true and trivial. Social cost is society’s opportunity cost. It is what society as a whole must give up in order to be able to consume something.
