Monday, November 23, 2009

Chart of the day

Source: NCPA

Most medical services are covered by insurance. Cosmetic surgery is a cash business. In order to address health care inflation the role played by insurance must be reevaluated.

5 comments:

Ben said...

I think you mean Elective Cosmetic Surgery.

Colin said...

It is true, cosmetic surgery is elective while many surgical procedures are not.

Then again, food isn't elective either.

Ben said...

No, I think you mean Elective Cosmetic Surgery is a cash business whereas non-Elective Cosmetic Surgery -- like post-accident reconstructive surgery -- is not.

Of course, food is subject to its own economics. Remember a couple years ago when the price of rice was increasing exponentially?

Colin said...

Yes, good point and appreciate the clarification.

As for rice, I think if you study that particular phenomenon you will notice substantial government interference in Asia with things like export and price controls.

Also not helping matters was government policy in the US and other Western countries which encouraged the growing of biofuels instead of items such as rice.

Ben said...

It's interesting you mention US policy wrt biofuels -- at the same time as rice prices were skyrocketing, the price of corn was also increasing but not at the same rate, despite the then focus on corn-based ethanol and fears of fueling with food, etc. If I remember correctly, Asian policies--especially Thailand--exacerbated the price increase but they followed several months of already exponential growth. That may not be the right order, but that's what I recall.