the challenge is that ~40% of healthcare spend is even plausibly directed by the patient. the majority is not elective, a result of an acute situation, etc. The

the challenge is that ~40% of healthcare spend is even plausibly directed by the patient. the majority is not elective, a result of an acute situation, etc. The concept of free market, unfortunately, doesn't work. It's easy to confuse this because most people on HN are (relatively) healthy. 15% of the population consumes 80% of total healthcare spend. These are the ones that we need to solve for Sources: lots of research I could link to but don't have handy and, with great dismay/frustration, I've spent a decade analyzing the root causes of US healthcare spend.