FAIRFAX, Va., Oct. 7 -- George Mason University issued the following news release:
In Phillip Zane's George Mason University classroom, students weigh an invitation to jump out of an airplane. The skydiving lesson and jump are free, and the exercise assumes there is zero risk of death. But an injury could mean $10,000 in medical expenses and $1,000 in lost wages.
Some have health insurance. Others don't. Everyone has to decide whether to take the leap.
The imaginary jump brings a question of health economics within reach: how insurance can change the risks people are willing to take, and what happens when those choices add up across a health care system.
Zane, an associate professor in the Department of Health Administration, Policy, an...