Fowl Math For A Chicken-Based Health Care Economy

[ProSense]

Fowl Math For A Chicken-Based Health Care Economy

Eric Kleefeld

So with all the discussion surrounding Nevada Senate candidate Sue Lowden's idea to use bartering as a way to pay for health care, we thought we'd take a look at whether the idea would actually work. Since Lowden, a Republican, touted the fact that her grandparents' generation would bring a chicken to the doctor for payment, we decided to look at whether the math would work for a chicken-based health care economy. The answer? Absolutely Not. There aren't enough chickens in the world -- let alone the United States -- to cover the costs of health care in this country alone.

The numbers on chicken economics<...>

Total U.S. health care costs in 2008: $2.3 trillion
US population: About 300 million
Average cost of health care per person: $7,681
Average weight of a chicken: 5.9 lbs
Market price per pound: 85 cents
Average spot price per chicken: $5.02
Average number of chickens per resident needed to cover health care costs: 1,530 chickens
Total number of chickens needed to cover United States health care costs: 459 billion chickens
Estimated worldwide chicken population: 16 billion chickens
Current worldwide chicken shortage to cover U.S. health care: 443 billion cluckers

more

:rofl:

[Historic NY]

1. Hurry, hurry, hurry, the sale is on now....grow your own chicken based health care program.

http://www.globegazette.com/news/local/article_df581ccc-435b-11df-aef9-001cc4c03286.html

[Jennicut]

2. Wow. That is a lot of chickens. I just bought some cornish hens tonight. $9.00.

That would cover, what? A band-aid for a hangnail?

[nebenaube]

4. nope... n/t

[WeDidIt]

3. We're gonna need a bigger coop.

n/t

[Cha]

5. Fuzzy Math never stops republicons

from making fools out of themselves.

[SwampG8r]

6. my only question is

what do i pay the veterenarian with?
i cant imagine he would want another animal and my dog gets itchy during the summer
so what do you think a vet would take?fish or something else?

[FlaGranny]

7. I can see it now -

every doctor's office and hospital installing large freezers and refrigerators to store all the chickens and vegetables. They would have to be larger, MUCH larger than any supermarket has. Of course, if they are live chickens, well, every medical facility would need chicken coops that would outdo any chicken coops presently existing in the world. I wonder how the zoning laws would handle that. Everyone doesn't have a farm either. One thing that might be good is that you could do your weekly grocery shopping at the doctor's office or hospital.

I wonder how a disabled person barters their services for medical care? How about a hairdresser?, a waiter? Attorneys could do it - if their doctor got sued a lot.