The view from here

Most current health care policy--and health plan benefit structure--is based on the assumption that consumers will over-utilize health care services if there's no financial penalty for doing so. Economists call this notion the theory of "moral hazard." But New Yorker columnist Malcolm Gladwell disputes this conclusion strenuously, arguing that you can't apply this theory to health care demand. What happens when patients are forced to carry a larger share of costs, in reality, is that rather than cutting wasteful utilization, it encourages patients to neglect serious conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. "When it comes to health care, many of the things we do only because we have insurance--like getting our moles checked, or getting our teeth cleaned regularly, or getting a mammogram or engaging in other routine preventive care--are anything but wasteful and inefficient. In fact, they are behaviors that could end up saving the health care system a good deal of money," he writes. Column

Labels: insurance