20151108 (medical costs)

Charge the sucker what he’ll pay

Is the first rule of economics I’m

Quite sure Samuelson frames it 

More delicately as a graph showing

Buyers along the y-axis and price

Along the x refined to show that

One’s maximum earnings occur

At some point along the line for

The highest price times the 

Largest number of buyers if the 

Price is very low you can move 

A million if the price is very 

High sales will be rare

But that’s for widgets novels

And movies if all you’ve got

Is that one lamp your Aunt Martha

Gave you fifty cents may not be 

As bad as it sounds at first

Especially when you’ve had it 

On Craigslist for six weeks and 

Nobody’s come to see it from the

Ten who called you can regift it

If your friends lack taste or lamps

Which can save you driving it 

To the thrift store but you shouldn’t 

Claim it on your taxes not

In good conscience if you’ve ever

Thought to make a photo record 

Of your possessions would you

Even waste the effort for the lamp

Not if your deductible is a thousand

Dollars when they stole my computer

And monitor I learned that only cars

Out of showrooms depreciate faster

It may be worth a thousand dollars

To you but that gets you a buck to

Claim it if it’s five years old in my 

Dump they’d have to take a lot for

Me to get even a pittance back and

That’s including repair of the 

Break-in damage I’m reading

Steven Brill’s book on medical

Costs in America America’s

Bitter Pill and learning how

Health benefits got so expensive

He samples items from those six

To seven page line listings of every

Item used in the course of two days

In the hospital seventy-seven

Dollars for a box of gauze pads

One could buy for a buck at CVS

Or having to pay for items twice

Once as a line cost and again 

Included in the cost of the 

Emergency room billing for 

Hospital care rivals the Defense 

Department’s six hundred dollar 

Hammers former employees of

Hospitals and insurance companies

Have carved lush new jobs negotiating

With hospitals to reduce your

Bill but of course that comes at 

A price too it is not unusual to

Find non-profit hospitals with

Operating profits higher than

Apple remember that when you

Set your price it’s not gouging

It’s your due

c. J.S.Manista, 2015