Thursday, April 22, 2010

Medical Payments = Chickens: A Bird Brain Idea?


This morning is going to be a short post because I am helping my good friend Stert with my pick up truck.

Yesterday I saw on the TV news a piece about a woman in Nevada running for the U.S. Senate that suggested that medical payment could be made with chickens like in years past. My mind started to work with this idea and I started wondering how many chickens would it take to pay for a hip replacement, a knee replacement, or, possibly a whole chicken farm for open heart surgery? Then because I was once a portfolio manager a long time ago, and sometimes my mind makes crazy detours, I had an idea. I decided to share my idea with a group of guys I have coffee with on some Sunday mornings. So, I sent them an email. Below is that email.

I would like to know if there is any interest out there to start a chicken farm for the purpose of paying medical bills? A woman running for the U.S. Senate from Nevada has indicated that doctors may be taking chickens in payment for medical services now as in years past. I was thinking that there just might be an arbitrage if we act quickly before chickens go up in price. After our chickens appreciate in value, we could reverse the arbitrage and go back into cash. Naturally, there is risk in any arbitrage, so, worst case scenario is we are left eating a lot of chickens. Anyone interested in pursuing this bird brain idea, please get in touch.


Stay tuned.