Monday, April 12, 2010

Barter? Haggle? Bargain? Huh?

It appears that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's opponent in November wants him to get some early gifts.  She apparently believes that health care costs can be held down if people "barter".

Oops.  Her bad.  In a subsequent correction, she actually meant "haggle" instead of barter.  A shame.  I was looking forward to finding out how many origami dinosaurs a check-up would cost.  Now I'm going to have to go from doctor to doctor explaining that the first doctor would have done it for 113 dinosaurs: how many would the second be willing to do it for?

It is conceivable, just possible, that some aspect of bargaining, haggling could have a small impact on prices for non-emergency care.  However, the bigger effect is much more likely to be keeping people away from checkups, thereby increasing the need for emergency procedures later.

And for emergency care, one's not going to have the opportunity to shop around for a cheaper doctor while suffering a heart attack.

What an idiot.  It's seriously scary that the voters of Nevada currently look to be poised to elect her.

Yours, not willing to haggle on this issue.
N.

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