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I would not describe government as heavily involved in health care. The prices you see rising are from lack of meaningful competition and transparency allowing
by scientistem 9y ago
I would not describe government as heavily involved in health care. The prices you see rising are from lack of meaningful competition and transparency allowing providers and insurance companies to dictate prices virtually arbitrarily and certainly irrationally to the consumer using the services.
Meanwhile, government is the only meaningful access many have to healthcare and education.
- nickpp 9y agoThe very lack of meaningful competition and transparency is caused by and a symptom of heavy government involvement. Governments corrupt markets.
- WalterBright 9y agoAbout half of health care spending in this country is done by the government. That's heavily involved by any metric. Secondly, the amount of regulation of it is very, very heavy. The price rises are due to this. See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/how-american-health-care-killed-my-father/307617/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/09/how-ame... Note how prices for Lasik eye surgery, which has little government involvement, have trended down dramatically.
- scientistem 9y agoWhile that may be true, the causal link between government spending and high prices is unclear. The vast majority of waste I see getting healthcare myself is the absolutely massive cost of dealing with insurance itself. This is an industry (billing!) that employs vast numbers of people. I think it’s much more likely the high costs are an effect of ludicrously poor price transparency and the unsustainable healthcare practices that this sustains. At worst, government regulation exacerbates this; I think you’d be hard pressed to demonstrate it’s the primary cause. Either way, we need price transparency before people start acting rationally, and government regulation of irrational spending is going to be wasteful. Price transparency would make the promise of single payer (government) healthcare actually sustainable for a populace; without it, you’re just making the healthcare industry richer without actually providing a proportionate amount of care to the public.
- WalterBright 9y agoIt's the primary cause. See the article I linked to. Government payments, subsidies, regulations, and tax policy all act to distort market incentives.
- scientistem 9y agoHmm, I suppose we have different standards for evidence.
- WalterBright 9y agoWhy have software prices trended to zero, in spite of the desires of their capitalist creators to make it as expensive as possible?
- scientistem 9y agoWell, I’d assume price competition. (I appreciate the response!) How can you expect prices to improve if you can’t shop around?
- WalterBright 9y agoShopping around in health care is greatly restricted by government policy. Tax policy, for example, is why health insurance tends to be tied to your employer, unlike car insurance. The supply of MDs is closely controlled and restricted by the AMA in order to drive up prices. See "Competition and Monopoly" by Frecht. The supply of drugs is heavily restricted by patents and the FDA. See "Regulation of Pharmaceutical Innovation" by Peltzman.