How to cut health costs
25th April 2011
If Paul Krugman were a real economist, this is what he would tell you.
No, his Nobel Prize in Economics does not make him an economist.
Nor do his degrees from Yale and MIT.
He has the credentials but he does not think as an economist.
My proof.
From Paul Krugman: “Here’s my question: How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as ‘consumers’? The relationship between patient and doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — and their only complaint is that it isn’t commercial enough.”
An economist would not write that paragraph because an economist would know that a patient is indeed a consumer, a person who makes decisions on this product line called medicine. As a consumer, the patient usually decides whether to buy medical services or products, when, where and how much.