INCREASED MEDICAL COSTS–SOMETIMES A GOOD THING.
INCREASED MEDICAL COSTS—SOMETIMES A GOOD THING. Brad DeLong (a very good and very important blog) has a useful classification of left wing and right wing approaches to medical costs. “Those economists on the left tend to think that the real big problem with American health care is adverse selection: Those who know they are healthy and likely to stay that way skimp on purchasing insurance.” “Those economists on the right tend to think that the real big problem with American health care is moral hazard: that patients soak up scarce and valuable doctor and nurse time even when there is no benefit to the visit, and that doctors use up vast resources conducting tests and procedures that do patients very little good.” DeLong describes a third problem: preventable illnesses driven by life style choices will impose additional costs by 2045 or 2050.
Kids, I want to point out a fact that is often neglected in discussions of medical costs: a lot of increased medical costs are providing real value. People in 2045 or 2050 will be dying of some diseases and to the extent medical research has found more remedies, they may very well be expensive remedies. DeLong has isolated not three problems, but three courses of action that may help reduce medical costs. And there are lot of other fixes for the medical system that would be helpful. But success in medical research probably means that we will be spending a higher percentage of our national income on health, including long term care (unless there are magic bullets that are discovered as wonder drugs once were). In a more affluent society, I think it’s a good thing to spend a higher percentage of income on health and education. Of course, in 2045 or 2050 you will be the age I am now, which is an age which appreciates expenditures on health.
Along with undervaluing what current modern medicine can do for our lives, our culture has an alarming strain in it that actually demonises modern medicine. As I owe my life to intense cancer care 13 years ago, I look with astonishment on people who value “all natural” treatments to the neglect of established modern practices. Were the Middle Ages really a healthier time? One of my favorite cartoons shows two cavemen sitting near a fire. One of them is saying, “Something is very wrong. We all eat organic foods. Our water is unpolluted. We get a lot of exercise every day. But, still, nobody lives past thirty.”