Krugman on the Lowden Plan (Chickens for Checkups)

With all due respect to Mr. Krugman, I think that people DO understand the absurdity of this. As I mentioned yesterday, the Lowden Plan calculator (http://lowdenplan.com/) showed that my recent MRI would have cost 462 chickens. Since my last name isn’t Perdue or Tyson, that’s not gonna happen.

Clipped from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com

But I think even the mocking critics are missing the main point. Sure, it’s funny to see a 21st-century political candidate pining for the days of a barter economy. But her remarks would have been breathtakingly ignorant even if she had called for payments in cash.

The key fact about health care — the central issue in health care economics — is that it’s all about the big-ticket items. Checkups don’t cost much; neither does the treatment of minor illnesses. The money that matters goes to bypasses and dialysis — costs that are highly unpredictable, and that almost nobody can afford to pay out of pocket. Modern health care, if it’s going to be provided at all, has to be paid for mainly out of insurance.