[lit-ideas] Re: Market Pricing for Health Care
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:07:46 -0800
John,
Thanks for passing this on. I mentioned Kuttner's book (Everything for
Sale) so long ago that it must have been on Phil Lit. It was one of the
books we read for Senior Symposium, in whatever year it was. His
explanation of why health care by its very nature does not fit a
market-driven model is the best analysis of that issue I've ever read.
I still commend it to those who drone on about the virtues or vices of
various platypus-shaped health insurance schemes. Presidential
candidates should be made to debate with Kuttner and not with their
opponents over this.
Robert Paul
The second is from Robert Kuttner, who in Everything for Sale: The
Virtues and Limits of Markets observes that the distinction between
private and public goods is rooted in the fact that private goods offer
a genuine choice, individual consumers can take them or leave them. From
soft drinks in a vending machine to real estate or hedge funds, freedom
of choice does, in fact, drive the competition that market
fundamentalists venerate. In contrast, public goods are what are more
usually called necessities.
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