I’m a liberal, but in my old age I’m a bit more conservative and I’m swayed by using proper economic incentives to achieve societal goals. I am generally a fan of using free markets and pricing to guide people because it’s the simplest, most predictable method of encouraging change. But health care is a massive, complex problem which clearly is not working and there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix it without massive government intervention. I start with the premise that we want at least basic health care with universal coverage. A couple of things I’ve heard recently make me think that free markets are not the way to go. The various components of the health care industry have perverse a set of incentives that are sort of contradictory to overall public health.

First, doctors are paid by the procedures they do and not the overall quality of life that they provide to the public they serve.

Second, health insurance agencies can achieve financial success by avoiding paying out claims. Insurance companies spend a large amount of effort to avoid covering expensive patients and procedures.

Third, consumers have no way of ever understanding, valuing or navigating through the health care system without professional help.

I think we need a publicly funded health care option. It’s critical for someone you trust to step in between the consumer and health care provider to give you the best value for care, set cost limits, and negotiate with providers. Government may not be the most efficient way of doing this, but at least you don’t have to second guess the intentions of the government like you do with an insurance company.

This weekend we went strawberry picking and I also got a new car stereo for my Prius. Mainly I was looking for better iPhone integration. My 2005 Prius had pretty limited options for that. Mostly I wanted something that would charge my iPhone and play music, other features would be nice to have, but not a requirement. Another factor is that the navigation on my Prius sucks badly, it has a number of annoying traits, bad UI, and bad directions. A friend recommended All Pro Audio in Santa Clara, and the owner Jim Lee is a nice, knowledgeable guy. He recommended two options. If I was just looking for iPhone integration, the Parrot MKi9200 which had all the basics, bluetooth phone, ipod music, small display mounted separately wherever I wanted. If I wanted to add in a navigation system, then he had the Pioneer AVIC-7010 which was a full replacement for the existing car stereo and navigation system but would leave some of the features on the existing display(climate control, trip computer, engine/battery monitors).

I opted for the Pioneer and got it installed overnight. I’m pretty happy with the system so far, but it has a few issues. I have to go back for a second install because they didn’t have the parts do the dashboard finishing and they disconnected the old display features like the climate control system. The unit itself is pretty good, but a couple of the controls I had to look at the manual for. The nav system is pretty good. The ipod controls are good. The Bluetooth phone seems fine but I’ve only used it minimally and I don’t really expect to use it much. Among the less expected features, a USB jack, an auxiliary RCA jack, a mini SD card jack, voice recognition for playing albums, software upgradeability, HD Radio ready. It cost about $1k installed(the Parrot would’ve cost about half that), but I now have the audio flexibility I wanted.