The economists wanted to toss some new information into this complicated problem — comparisons from the world of pet health care. These worlds share several similarities: The patients are often struck by sudden illnesses, and decisions about whether and how to treat them turn on emotional reasoning and financial trade-offs. The practitioners must study a long time and are subject to strict licensing rules, and technology in both sectors has advanced at comparable rates.
But there are a couple of big differences: Only about 1 percent of pets have health insurance, and pet health care is subject to less government regulation.
