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Re:Public Fried Chicken (by Scott Banister) by neilk on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @10:20PM (#1000334)
Wow, it's obvious. Health care is exactly like every other commodity. Why didn't we think of that before?

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/82/2/PHCBP.pdf

Re:Public Fried Chicken (by Scott Banister) by gabrielroth on Wednesday December 16, 2009 @11:01PM (#1000394)
I just logged on to post the exact same paper.

To anyone who doesn't want to download the pdf linked above: it's Kenneth Arrow's economics paper "Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care." It launched the field of health-care economics. It demonstrates that health care is not like fried chicken. It was published in 1963.

Of course, there are counter-arguments to be made. But an argument comparing health care to fried chicken without taking Arrow's work into account is a worthless argument.