[lbo-talk] Talk about death panels!

Matthias Wasser matthias.wasser at gmail.com
Wed Sep 9 18:11:22 PDT 2009


On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 8:51 PM, <RicardoStarkey at aol.com> wrote:


> Isn't it unseemly to scheme on profiting from the untimely deaths of
> diseased people? Just me? Of course, capitalists have always found a way
> to
> profit from death and misery, but at this juncture in history, isn't this
> plan a new low (high?) in cynicism?
>
Private health insurance creates bad incentives, limits access, and so on. So that's bad. But given that it already exists I don't see what additional evil is created by allowing insurers to redistribute risk among each other in this way. (Allowing them to run wild with risk redistribution is what led to the crisis in the short run, but the devil's in the details.) Are the incentives to provide shitty care amplified by this practice? I don't see how they would be on first blush, but I'm willing to find that they are.



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