The insurance plan (public or private) that pays everything and makes you blissfully unaware of the cost feels nice, but in insulating us from the cost of our consumption, it makes us consume more and pay more.

I think there must be a rational way to think about medical care from a perspective that recognizes it as an economic decision. In other words, there are only so many dollars to go around (in a family budget or a country), so if you buy more of one thing, you must buy less of another. What if the MRI cost $100? What if the MRI cost a trillion dollars? I know we’re talking about human life, but in the end, doesn’t cost enter in to the equation somewhere?

I would love what true competition could bring to medical prices. Hasn’t Lasik come way down in price, precisely because you can’t get insurance to pay for it and so practitioners go out and earn your business? Maybe MRIs could actually cost $100 someday.

And, at the end of the day, aren’t you glad to have the ability to ask your MD what he would do, and have the choice what care to give your son?