America’s Healthcare Mess

An AB reader sent along The Moral Hazard Myth by Malcolm Gladwell. The opening paragraph reminded me I’m overdue to see my dentist. As Kevin Drum so ably summarizes:

Gladwell suggests that although politics has a lot to do with America’s weird and dysfunctional healthcare system, so does elite economic opinion. Read the whole thing to get his take on “moral hazard” and how it’s warped the way American economists think about healthcare. Aside from that, I think the passage above also highlights the big problem among non-elites: for some reason, Americans aren’t pissed off enough about their healthcare to demand change.

While I may be a “warped economist”, I have to concede that any article that challenges and then enhances my limited understanding of the health care market is worth the read.