The Public-Private Double Standard  People condemn private
insurers for policies they'd excuse in public programs.
Commentary by John C Goodman  Source: Psychology Today  As I
explain in Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis, there are
many reasons why people disagree about healthcare policy. One
obstacle to reaching an agreement is that many people don’t
realize—or aren’t concerned—that they hold a double standard.
If a private insurance company denies a breast cancer patient a
bone marrow transplant, that’s considered a moral outrage—even
if the procedure is experimental and is later shown not to work.
But if the Arizona Medicaid program denies people organ
transplants that do work and do save lives, that is considered
an unfortunate budget issue.   What I am describing is, of
course, a double standard. Many people in health policy, for
example, viscerally dislike the idea of private Medicare
Advantage plans, an alternative chosen by about one in four
Medicare enrollees. Instead they would like to see e