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Thought 34: Health Care and Baseball

What do health care and baseball have to do with each other?

Statistics.

So, with all of this talk about health care reform, I starting think about how insurance companies rely on *tons* of statistics. Statistics based on past performances, over health numbers, the cost of procedures, etc. And for a long time they used those numbers to analyze the risks of losing a patient, wasting money on tests, or even law suits. For the most part, it has become a large number crunching machine. Unfortunately instead of trying to balance human life, it seems as though Greed has altered the machine to instead balance the money going to those running the machine. The removal of the human element is why we talk about the reforms today. But enough about the problems, how about a solution?

Well, I started thinking about something else that requires a great deal of statistics and human *gut* instinct: Baseball. A game that makes as much use or more of statistics to determine outcomes that the health care systems. For the most part pitches, pinch hitters, line up changes, etc. are chosen by statistic to improve the outcome, but upon occasion the manager will decide based on the current situation to take a risk with the operation of the baseball statistics machine. An that's what I think health insurance needs a real human to intervene, and activate the *gut* reaction, overriding the machine. Putting back that human element, the element of survival against the odds.

In either case, I'd love to see doctors and insurance reps scream atop a mound of dirt and kick dirt on each others shoes to determine what happens next.

Anyway it's just a thought.

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