moral hazard/brother

Crazy On Tap - Let the expensive 1% die?

Yeah, Kenny, not everyone gets into the 1%. Some commit suicide, some die in a war before they get there. But those who want to extend their life by even a couple months, do spend thousands and thousands of dollars in those last few, too short, months.

I do agree with son of parnas that it's a question of acconting, a cold calculus. Not everyone's grandma is worth keeping around. $100,000 to keep my grandma around another five years? Sure. $1 million? Uh, well, not unless she's Nancy Pelosi.

On a personal note, I have a brother who is in that 1%. Three months in the hospital last year. Fewer this year (he's there now), but still at 24, he's already eaten up his share of the lifetime healthcare pie.

His illness? He's a walking (when he can walk) moral hazard - doesn't understand moral hazards whatsoever. Not just consciously like on an econ quiz, but subconsciously the way most of us are built. The risk to reward/loss feedback cycle is broken. So he does risky things even though he's experienced pain/loss from them before. The system (the state's health welfare, his family) prop him up. If anything, he seems to value his life by how much he takes out of the system - he bragged that his state-paid hepC meds cost $10,000 per month. Creative accounting, indeed.