Optimal contracts for jumped-up monkeys

Amid the serious health care debate we have Brad Delong responding to Marty Feldstein with:
...[P]eople are really lousy consumers of medical services when they have to spend their own nickel. Why, just this morning Anthem Blue Cross waived the copays on all flu shots. That's not something you would want to do if people were anything more than jumped-up monkeys with brains designed to figure out whether the fruit is ripe..
Which made me laugh very hard...

But seriously, if we're all jumped-up monkeys (and let's face it, many of us are) forget the copay on preventative care.  In fact, wouldn't it be more profitable if insurance companies paid patients for preventative-care visits?  Once upon a time I would have swallowed the prima facie evidence that insurance companies don't pay for prevention as proof such a policy wasn't  optimal.  I suppose I still lean in that direction. But I'm not so sure...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nonlinear Temperature Effects Indicate Severe Damages to U.S. Crop Yields Under Climate Change

Commodity Prices and the Fed