OFF: consumer economics (was: Hawkwind MP3's)

[Paul Mather]

On Tue, Apr 08, 2003 at 01:48:06PM +0100, M Holmes wrote:
=> nickmedford at HOTMAIL.COM writes:

=> > Are you suggesting that if people in the UK had to pay for (say) coronary
=> > artery bypass grafts, then fewer British people would require them?
=>
=> Exactly so. If people don't have to pay for healthcare then at the
=> margin they will be less careful of their health. It's all about incentives.

You mean like the incentive of not spending time in a hospital under
potentially dangerous surgery, or the incentive of having increased
longevity?  Aside from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, do you know of
many people who LIKE to spend their time as patients in a hospital? :-)

If I had free dental care, I doubt that would make me take less care
of my teeth just so I could partake of the dubious pleasure of
multiple free root canal procedures...

(Remember folks, be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.;)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa