The New Chicken Barter Economy
I was wrong that Republicans don’t have new ideas! Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden thinks health care reform is wrong and she has a better idea:
Sue Lowden, the likely GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada, has a novel plan for health care reform: haggling with your doctor over prices.
Lowden offered her proposal last Tuesday in Mesquite.
I think that bartering is really good. Those doctors who you pay cash, you can barter, and that would get prices down in a hurry. And I would say go out, go ahead out and pay cash for whatever your medical needs are, and go ahead and barter with your doctor.
Did she really mean barter? Like taking medical services in trade? The answer is yes: she really means barter.
Sue Lowden, the likely Republican nominee against Harry Reid, is doubling down on her widely ridiculed proposal that people should haggle and barter with doctors to bring down prices.
Appearing yesterday on Nevada Newsmakers, Lowden said:
I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house. I mean, that’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system.
I’m not sure how I’m going survive in this new economy. I don’t have any chickens.
Tags: Harry Reid, Health Care, NV-Sen, Sue Lowden
There are not enough words to express how idiotic this idea is. This is more wallowing in the good old days – that really weren’t so good for most people.
This is a modified version of the Republican concept of “negotiating” with insurance companies for healthcare. To wit: I want a better rate, lower deductables and preventative care covered, Insurance company: NO! See how well it works?
What a great idea! Bank foreclosing on your mortgage? Offer them some livestock! I’m sure they’ll jump at the chance.
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, I didn’t think they could find someone stupider than Sarah Palin. I underestimated them.
Yup, that might be the single most stupidest (yeah, I said “most stupidest”) idea I’ve ever heard. Just the idea of negotiating is delusional, but then to add bartering to it?!? Wow. Gee, I wonder how many iPods an appendectomy costs? Maybe I can wash my daughter’s pediatrician’s car to pay for her next visit. Just Wow. Thank you, Party of New Ideas.
One chicken should buy you a bloodletting and a mercury poultice.
The bad news is we are now stuck with Harry Reid.
Not true, anon. This woman leads HArry by 15 points or so in the latest polling. Basically, he’s losing to a ham sandwich.
Yeah, but she just came out with this idiocy now. She doesn’t even have the nomination for sure and I wonder if this will make a difference in the Republican primary.
A person this dumb is not going to beat Harry Reid, I’d bet. There’s still a long way to go until November.
Was that 15-point lead taken BC (Before Chicken?)
Meanwhile Arizona physicians are probably abandoning their offices and converging on Dem HQ to switch registration. The parking lot probably looks like a Lexus dealership today.
Actually UI, we have received snow shoveling, artwork, framing, car repairs, day care, home made meals,and lots of farm fresh eggs to meet a bill. It may not have covered the debt, but their integrity remained intact, which amazingly has a way to forego a balance in our world. That, Pandora is probably meant about the “good ol’ days”.
The problem w/ “official” barter, is it is treated as income w/ the IRS–hence difficult to equate benefit when the value is dollar to dollar. There are some outfits out there, that allow you to subscribe to a “barter outlet”, that you can deal your goods and services this way.
And don’t worry UI, you don’t need chickens–you have intellectual capital. We received that before too–music lessons, and a math tutor!!
Joanne, the problem is that this cannot work on a large scale. Therefore it is NOT a solution to health care.
And if you think this can work for everyone then why not just skip the bartering and ask doctors to lower their rates? Isn’t that basically the same thing? Seriously, how many chickens, piano lessons, house painting can one doctor use in a year – and how can he/she use them to pay their student loan, mortgage, car payments, etc..
The idea – on a large scale – is ridiculous… unless we get rid of money and switch to a bartering economy.
How much bartering for chemotherapy or childbirth?
It’s just won’t work for a large scale. Isolated instances of course, but no doctor is going to go to an all-barter practice.
Ummm. Do people not get that we are all bartering? We trade chickens for dollars and dollars for medical care. God forbid your doctor is lactose-intolerant and you are a dairy farmer.
Plus it is very difficult to get a chicken in your wallet.
“Livestock must wait in the reception area – NO EXCEPTIONS”
I get it Pandora, I get it. I also have been to Mesquite, Nevada. Large scale, heck no. But again, some people avoid a simple visit, because of “lack of insurance”, but they are chicken rich, yet cash poor. That’s all…it at least gets them seen. And besides the pharmacist may be able to use some of the herb in trade:), for just the right antibiotic.
Sorry, Joanne. It simply doesn’t work. And it won’t get most people seen.
Exceptionalism, whether national or personal, is at the core of conservative epistemology. You’ll notice the fundies like to have a “personal” relationship with Jesus, too. They have to be special or they’re not interested.
Joanne: Barter is common among rural people, also known as “hicks” or “rubes” or “hayseeds.” As you noted, it’s not really payment — it’s a form of saving face for people who are being given charity, more a tip than payment of the bill. Yes, it makes the patient feel better — but it’s utterly impractical to suggest it should make up any measurable segment of a $2.3 trillion chunk of the economy. Surely you aren’t suggesting otherwise.
This would make the whole raise-livestock-in-your-backyard issue in New Castle County more interesting. That’s not a stable in my backyard, it’s my health insurance plan.
That’s not a stable in my backyard, it’s my health insurance plan.
State Farm?
Beautiful.
Has anybody thought to ask the doctors how they feel about this? There were very good reasons why society evolved away from a barter economy and started using specie, or fiat money, or whatever you want to call it. Bartering is clunky, difficult, imprecise, and just not practical. I can’t believe we even have to discuss this.
anon wins the internets for the day. I’m trying to figure out how to turn it into a tweet.