Saturday, November 03, 2007
Shooting the bull about health care
The next time you're chatting with one of the current crop of presidential hopefuls, and she or he starts in on the wonders of her/his health care plan, ask 'em to answer the following questions:
What is:
1. Actuarial fairness?
2. Moral hazard?
3. Adverse selection?
4. Baumol's cost disease?
5. Ultra-superior good (or income elasticity of demand greater than one)?
6. Soft budget constraint?
7. The knowledge problem?
If they can’t answer these, I bet they at least know what bullshit is.
What is:
1. Actuarial fairness?
2. Moral hazard?
3. Adverse selection?
4. Baumol's cost disease?
5. Ultra-superior good (or income elasticity of demand greater than one)?
6. Soft budget constraint?
7. The knowledge problem?
If they can’t answer these, I bet they at least know what bullshit is.
