Megan McArdle proudly announces that she wasn't nearly as wrong as everyone thought she was. (This is still to be determined, of course.) We're happy for her if true, but since the issue was McArdle's ignorance of the health insurance industry while advocating for it, we're not too happy. The self-described economics expert didn't know health insurance was rising and didn't think she had to look it up. She often makes factual errors, many of which are overlooked, and of course draws correspondingly incorrect conclusions which she passes on to her readers. Correcting McArdle's mistakes is a full-time job. As we well know.
Well, we warned them. We told them that they were destroying their future (and ours, by the way) and they'd be sorry some day. Everything has consequences, which is why our actions are so important. There are some mistakes that can't be fixed.
She tried to use numbers.
ReplyDeleteIt was ungodly ugly.
Not just that she was comparing wildly different things with no comprehension of their differences - it went below 7th grade math. By her calculations, health insurance in NY (she doesn't know group from individual) costs $50,000/month.
If Bradley's funders ever read this crap, they'll essplode.
She couldn't be bothered to do simple research before writing about something, but it's all okay because she did it for charity.
ReplyDeleteDear God, I think that just might be the worst excuse she's ever come up with.
And she's so proud of it all, too!
ReplyDeleteThe standard argument against Community Rating makes me angry. And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
ReplyDeleteShort version: people who hate Community Rating because it allegedly violates some economic principle fail miserably in explaining what the alleged Core Competency of an insurance company is if it's not risk management. And if the CC is not risk management, what exactly do CEOs get paid for?
That's a good question, because McArdle told us the same thing about bankers--they are paid so well because they are talking so much risk. Yet she said we had to bail them out because they failed at their jobs of managing that risk.
ReplyDeleteI guess consistency is for the little people too.