Wednesday, July 29, 2009

More Shorters

of unnecessarily long posts.

Reputation and Insurance:

Complex stuff can be confusing and, well, complex, so who can really say that costs are going upupup because the medical industry wants higher profit margins? Maybe Viagra is secretly a vaccine for a deadly, deadly disease, or advertising hardcore motherfucking anti-psychotics as a prozac supplement is actually somehow ok.

It's Adverse. But Is It Selection?:

....
Sick people are to insurance companies as used car lemons are to car buyers.
....
That's her actual fucking argument.
She's basically blaming sick people for having to spend money on health care. If they would just get better on their own the medical industry wouldn't be able to charge so much.

Of course, as Alex notes, that doesn't mean that uninsured sick people aren't a problem. But as both he and Tyler have pointed out, they seem more likely to be a distributional problem than a market failure. In other words, the problem is not that the market cannot provide them insurance; the problem is that they don't have the money to buy it.
This seems meaningless, a distinction without a difference, to most people.
... just in case you thought I was being unfair.

The Real Mechanism:

Fatties are just meant to be fatties, if you try to do dumb things like make industrial foods less unhealthy the dumb piggies will just find more lard somewhere, snortsnortsnort.
Oy.

Credible Threats and the Homeless Population:
The point is not to ever exercise this threat. Rather, it's to make sure they don't have to. If a family knows they can't stay in temporary shelter forever, they'll be more motivated to follow the rules, and help get themselves back on their feet. Without that, a dysfunctional minority can choke the system.
After all, they chose to become homeless. We have to incentivize them to choose something else.

Quote of the Day:

Even if we maaaaaaybe admit there might sorta be a tiny lil hint of a bit of a slight problem with our healthcare system, why does that mean the medical industry has to accept lowered profits? Can't we just spend less on roads or something?

A Long, Long Post About My Reasons For Opposing National Health Care:
I know, most of you have already figured out why I oppose national health care. In a nutshell, I hate the poor and want them to die so that all my rich friends can use their bodies as mulch for their diamond ranches. But y'all keep asking, so here goes the longer explanation.
I don't think you hate the poor, Megan, I think you're incapable of comprehending the slightest hint of what being poor actually entails which leaves you with shallow, callow, highly unrealistic conceptions of poor folk.
And I think you're against healthcare reform because your employment depends on trying to obscure the relation between rising health care costs and rising health care executive compensation (and rising marketing costs, the people who come up with ads for Abilifuckingfy need those expense accounts to soothe their consciences), Megan.
I don't think you hate poor people, Megan, I think you don't think about them at all.
The rest of her rant appears to be the same old rehashed delusions that only the American pharma industry can produce any innovations, and only if non-scientist executives who prioritize boner pills and new names for prozac over useful medicine make millions off it, so nothing can change, ever.
Also, there's a new talking point that this means the government will totally tell you what to eat and make you work out and institute forced colonics. And they'll let old people die!!!!!!!!!!
I now hope Megan doesn't reproduce because no child should have to inherit such a legacy of shame.

Real Estate Moment of the Week:

Getting married leads Megan to think of buying a house. This means the housing market is now healthy.

Department of Awful Statistics:

The saddest part of this post is Megan probably thinks she was being tricky with it. She's making fun of O'Reilly while saying he's actually right. She thinks she's covering all her bases, instead of basically being a hypocrite.

Incentives Matter:

Sure, I just said people are going to be the weight they are no matter what, but that was before I found a new anti- health care reform boogeyman. OOGABOOGABOOGA, they'll hit you with the fatty stick.

*sigh*

4 comments:

clever pseudonym said...

Ugh.

"If a family knows they can't stay in temporary shelter forever, they'll be more motivated to follow the rules..."

Christ, as if they wouldn't be motivated to move out of a fucking temporary shelter for reasons other than "they can't stay there forever." Maybe reasons like raising a family in a shelter freakin' sucks. Life in shelters for anybody sucks. That's their bloody motivation, Megan. You idiot.

bulbul said...

My favorite:
If you skip the donut, you'll eat four apples or an extra slice of bread with dinner.
Calories don't matter, vitamins don't matter, who cares what fibre is - one thing you eat has as much effect on your waistline and health as another.
My gods (like, all of them, ever), she's dumb.

NutellaonToast said...

See, that's why McDonalds puts(put?) cotton in their shakes. Fewer calories!

Anonymous said...

http://inversesquare.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/why-andrew-sullivan-is-right-about-megan-mcardle-but-not-in-the-way-he-thinks/#comment-2564