Not knowing of any real health problems made it easy for me to be cheery at the doctor’s office. The nurse taking my blood pressure apologized if she seemed a little grumpy and expressed her appreciation at my positive demeanor. “So many people who come in here want us to prescribe cough medicine instead of buying it over the counter because,” she relayed, “they say, ‘I don’t have any money’. But they’re drinking a twelve-pack and smoking three packs a day! Most of their health issues are caused by their own choices, and they think we should fix everything for them for free.”
A month or so ago I was talking to a retiree who described his carelessness about climbing into his tree stand: “But I’ve got good health insurance with my GM pension,” he laughed. In a more serious tone: “If I didn’t, I’d have to be a lot more careful!”
There seems to still be debate in the world over this question: Do people change their behavior when they believe they no longer bear the risks? Put another way, do "safety nets" actually result in more people falling? We could pick many examples.
Will serving breakfast at school lead to fewer parents feeding their children breakfast at home?
Do corn (or milk, or honey, or sugar, etc.) subsidies result in more corn being produced?
Do corn (or milk, or honey, or sugar, etc.) subsidies result in more corn being produced?
Will giving kids condoms lead to more teenage sexual activity?
Do welfare checks to unwed mothers result in more children being born to unwed mothers?
If the government is paying for your health care, will more people go to the ER when a less costly, scheduled doctor office visit - or just eating chicken soup! - would suffice? Will they drink and smoke more and otherwise ruin their health if they know they have ‘free health care’?
The answer to each of these questions, of course, is "yes." This is an indisputable fact of social science. Not everyone under all circumstances, but a significant number of people will make a different behavioral choice when the government shields them from risks or consequences associated with the choice. Herbert Spencer put it well:
Do welfare checks to unwed mothers result in more children being born to unwed mothers?
If the government is paying for your health care, will more people go to the ER when a less costly, scheduled doctor office visit - or just eating chicken soup! - would suffice? Will they drink and smoke more and otherwise ruin their health if they know they have ‘free health care’?
The answer to each of these questions, of course, is "yes." This is an indisputable fact of social science. Not everyone under all circumstances, but a significant number of people will make a different behavioral choice when the government shields them from risks or consequences associated with the choice. Herbert Spencer put it well:
“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”
Which leads me back to that original ski lift conversation that inspired this post. Our family was skiing in Jackson Hole in 2008. When it comes to ski runs, I am definitely a "green dot" (beginner) and "blue square" (intermediate) guy; the "black diamond" runs are for the experts: I have to watch in wonder ... and hope I don’t witness any deaths!
You learn some interesting stuff if you chat with the people on ski lifts. I'm really not prone to initiate such conversations. "Where 'ya from?" and "whadaya do when yer not skiing?" are about as far as I usually go. By the way, the best answer I heard that day was, "I teach skiing." (Oh great! "Please look the other way while I stumble off of the chair lift.") On the other hand, just listening to the people around me is sometimes enlightening.
My daughter and I were skiing together one day. On a quad lift, I sat on one end, then she; two women were seated beyond her. Their conversation was apparently not intended to be private. The one lamented the fact that, although she enjoys the challenge and thrill of the more dangerous slopes, she has to pretty much stick with the intermediate trails. "I don't have any health insurance," she explained. "I can't really afford to blow out a knee or break an arm or something!" Then, matter-of-fact-like, she spoke the unguarded truth:
"If the government would ever get it together and provide universal health care coverage, we could ski wherever we want to!"
Transfer the risk to others—whether health insurance or welfare—and some people will engage in more risky behavior than they would if they alone bore the risk. Whether it's neglecting breakfast, planting too much corn, having illicit sex, drinking and smoking...or skiing black diamonds. I wonder if she will really like what she is about to get, if ObamaCare goes forward.
Somehow I think she may be like the people my nurse was complaining about...
