Krugman Ignores Economic Reality in Health Care, McDonalds' Inflation, and Silver Up to $47

Paul Krugman's New York Times column is extra infuriating today.  How in the hell does a Nobel Prize winning economist not apply economic principles to an industry such as health care?

Here’s my question: How did it become normal, or for that matter even acceptable, to refer to medical patients as “consumers”? The relationship between patient and doctor used to be considered something special, almost sacred. Now politicians and supposed reformers talk about the act of receiving care as if it were no different from a commercial transaction, like buying a car — and their only complaint is that it isn’t commercial enough.

Hate to break it to you Krugman, health care is not a right, it is a commodity like anything else.  It is unbelievable how he thinks that health care does not fall under the constraints of the law of scarcity, the law of diminishing marginal utility, or the law of the subjective theory of value.  Krugman is infuriating, but I am not as pissed as this guy:

Sorry to bring this picture up again, but these kids are gonna be pissed to:

From EPJ:

McDonald's now expects food costs to rise between 4 percent and 4.5 percent in the United States this year. That is up from its prior call for a rise of 2 percent to 2.5 percent.

Chief Financial Officer Pete Bensen said McDonald's in March put through a 1 percent menu price rise in the United States, and that it plans additional increases.

At least silver got another bump:

Here are a few more tidbits, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to head the IMF.  I guess he thought he did such a good job with the U.K., he needs to take his policies to a global scale.  Think he can solve Greece's coming default?  From the Guardian:

Greece is considering ways to restructure its debt – such as by extending the life of its loans – two national newspapers claimed on Friday, joining a flurry of recent reports on the prospect that Athens might be forced to default.
Greek and EU officials have steadfastly denied a debt restructuring is planned in the face of mounting evidence that markets are factoring one in.

And the revolving door continues:

Stephen M. Hoffman  has let his position as a Federal Reserve regulator to join  Promontory Financial Group, a Washington D.C. financial services consulting firm.

The founder of Promontory is  Eugene A. Ludwig, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and former Vice Chairman of Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank.

Update- Mark J. Perry provides a nice graph and explanation to refute much of what Krugman stipulates in his column: 

But Krugman seems to be arguing that regardless of who is paying for health care, "there’s something terribly wrong with the whole notion of patients as “consumers” and health care as simply a financial transaction." Krugman's further claims that “'Consumer-based' medicine has been a bust everywhere it has been tried."

Well, what about LASIK surgery, retail health clinics, concierge medicine, medical tourism and cosmetic surgery, to name just some of the successful "consumer-based" medical services?

When we think about soaring health care costs in the United States, isn't one of the main reasons precisely because patients have NOT been treated as consumers spending their own money?  In that case, I think Krugman has it backwards.  If the goal is to control health care costs, that will never happen until patients are treated like consumers.