When it comes to ordinary, simple commodities and products, organizing an economic system isn’t the most difficult task nor the most contentious one. We know, for example, that markets are highly effective in bringing together the aggregate wisdom of everyone in a way that a centralized system of planning can’t. But increasingly we face economic challenges that aren’t that simple. For example, healthcare poses an enormous challenge to any economic system. While everybody wants to be “healthy”, we can’t simply buy “health”. We have to produce and use “healthcare services” – most of which are actually services that fix a deficiency of health. Doctors don’t provide health for sale, they provide cures and treatments for symptoms of a lack of health. Some of those services can be incredibly expensive. Sickness is highly unpredictable – we can’t really plan for it. As a result, traditional product markets like we discuss in Econ 101 don’t work for healthcare. Here are a sample of readings to discuss some of these issues.
Unit 5 (and Unit 6) Readings: Healthcare and Intergenerational Issues
Unit 5 Readings: Some Facts About the PPACA
From a year ago.
Unit 5 Readings: Doctors Vote With Their Feet and Move To Canada
Unit 5 Readings: Patient’s Costs Skyrocket; Specialist’s Incomes Soar
Unit 5 Readings: Why Social Insurance Is A Necessary Part of Capitalism
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/02/10/Why-Social-Insurance-Necessary-Part-Capitalism
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/02/10/Why-Social-Insurance-Necessary-Part-Capitalism
Unit 5 Readings: Why Social Security Is NOT Broke And How The Trust Fund Works