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Well you can hardly have a free market for healthcare in the first place. A functional market requires that consumers be vigilant and make good choices. That's

by gnoway 13y ago

Well you can hardly have a free market for healthcare in the first place. A functional market requires that consumers be vigilant and make good choices. That's hard enough without being sick or injured. I like to think of myself as a free markets guy, but driving healthcare via the market seems like the worst, most cynical application of the concept possible.

jes 13y ago
With respect, what is a functional market, and why does such a market require that consumers be vigilant and make good choices? If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices?
- mpyne 13y ago
  > If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices? Even if we assume that consumers will learn to make good choices, that would require that they understand their choice was a bad one. This is an A-B-C problem (antecedent + behavior => consequence). The consumer must first recognize that a negative consequence has occurred, and then determine whether it was their behavior that was flawed (they made the wrong choice) or a flawed antecedent to that behavior (they'd made the right choice, had their assumed knowledge of the situation been accurate). Consumers don't do this though. Studies have repeatedly proved this (e.g. the very large effect of marketing and advertising on selection of products of otherwise equal quality). Consumers may make decisions that are non-harmful (i.e. they got about the same result but simply paid more) but they certainly do not make decisions that are optimal.
- rdtsc 13y ago
  I am sure you'd be more careful next time after you tell the ambulance driver to take you to a sub-optimal hospital were they end up killing you.
- krichman 13y ago
  Look at Apple's App Store. It restricts what developers can do (and charge) and it restricts what users can download (and where from). But, because the short-term benefits are good enough, many people do use it, to the detriment of the group.
- Fomite 13y ago
  "If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices?" One of the assumptions buried in this is the idea that consumers have access to the information required to make such a choice. In the healthcare "market", they don't.
Shivetya 13y ago
Regulations usually prevent consumers from making any choice. Regulation can make consumers buy insurance for procedures they do not want, or even physically be able to have. Regulation made impossible to shop across state lines for insurance. Government rules force suppliers to sell services at set rates to one customer and not to another. Health care stopped being a free market when government stepped in. Then it because burdened by politicians creating a system which favored whomever was giving them money and votes.

by gnoway 13y ago

jes 13y ago

With respect, what is a functional market, and why does such a market require that consumers be vigilant and make good choices? If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices?

mpyne 13y ago
> If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices? Even if we assume that consumers will learn to make good choices, that would require that they understand their choice was a bad one. This is an A-B-C problem (antecedent + behavior => consequence). The consumer must first recognize that a negative consequence has occurred, and then determine whether it was their behavior that was flawed (they made the wrong choice) or a flawed antecedent to that behavior (they'd made the right choice, had their assumed knowledge of the situation been accurate). Consumers don't do this though. Studies have repeatedly proved this (e.g. the very large effect of marketing and advertising on selection of products of otherwise equal quality). Consumers may make decisions that are non-harmful (i.e. they got about the same result but simply paid more) but they certainly do not make decisions that are optimal.
rdtsc 13y ago
I am sure you'd be more careful next time after you tell the ambulance driver to take you to a sub-optimal hospital were they end up killing you.
krichman 13y ago
Look at Apple's App Store. It restricts what developers can do (and charge) and it restricts what users can download (and where from). But, because the short-term benefits are good enough, many people do use it, to the detriment of the group.
Fomite 13y ago
"If consumers make bad choices, don't they eventually learn to make better choices?" One of the assumptions buried in this is the idea that consumers have access to the information required to make such a choice. In the healthcare "market", they don't.

Shivetya 13y ago

Regulations usually prevent consumers from making any choice. Regulation can make consumers buy insurance for procedures they do not want, or even physically be able to have. Regulation made impossible to shop across state lines for insurance. Government rules force suppliers to sell services at set rates to one customer and not to another. Health care stopped being a free market when government stepped in. Then it because burdened by politicians creating a system which favored whomever was giving them money and votes.