(2003-08-12) Arnold Kling On Healthcare

Arnold Kling on HealthCare issues. One issue he doesn't cover is the extreme discounts available to HMO-s, relative to what a Self Insured individual pays.

He includes a key bit on Poverty: We might want to consider how the (Life Style) choices that people make reveal their own beliefs about what is valuable. W Michael Cox and Richard Alm, in Myths Of Rich And Poor (ISBN:046504784X ), pointed out that in 1994 over 90 percent of poor households owned a color television. The majority of the poor owned microwave ovens, VCR's, and cable television hookups. Almost three-fourths of such households owned one or more cars. From this sort of data, one must infer either that there is something more valuable than health care coverage or that poor people have obtained enough coverage and are moving on to meeting other needs.