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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Alastair McIntosh who wrote (68258)5/24/2008 2:36:40 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (2) of 543207
 
The principle of moral hazard postulates only that those who purchase insurance have a reduced incentive to avoid what they are insured against. Why does it matter if the insurance coverage is provided by one payer or several payers?

Moral hazard doesn't apply if the insurance is not acquire through direct purchase? What counts is that the various parties share an insurance pool. Free ridership compounds the problem but I don't think it changes the underlying notion of moral hazard.

Why does it matter if the insurance coverage is provided by one payer or several payers?

Single-payer implies single pool. Shared pools matter. There are no negative financial consequences to those outside one's pool.

Also, much of the demand for medical services is independent of any action or lack of action by the person requiring the service.

And much of it isn't.

I can't envision anyone thinking "I'll just eat why I like and forget about exercise because my bypass surgery will be covered by the gov't".

Of course not. If you know that your medical care will be covered by the government, you don't need to think about the financial implications of your behavior at all. Any behavior. Either ignoring your health or overusing the health care system. No thought required.

(There was a Frontline program a while back that compared the health care systems in various countries. I got a kick out of the coverage of Taiwan. A Taiwanese official said that when patients sought medical care more than 20 times in a month, they got a phone inquiry and perhaps a hint that they cool it. The host of the show questioned whether Americans would put up with that much big brother. pbs.org )
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