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After years of covering the healthcare industry I would argue it is actually an easy answer: people have been too far removed from the actual cost of healthcare
by lefstathiou 16y ago
After years of covering the healthcare industry I would argue it is actually an easy answer: people have been too far removed from the actual cost of healthcare. Nobody knows who and how their healthcare is paid for which is why one night in an emergency room can cost $15,000, completely defying all the laws of supply and demand. Without getting into pricing theory, a general rule of thumb is that if you provide a service that is unaffordable even to the rich (so 99.9% of society), market forces will put downward pressure on your pricing. This doesnt happen in healthcare because everyone but the individual pays for it (it either comes from your work, your insurance company, subsidized by someone else or the government).
- theBobMcCormick 16y agoIntuitively that seems to make sense, but how does that account for almost every first world country except the US? In countries like Canada, the UK, etc. healthcare costs don't seem to be nearly as out of control as they are in the US, yet I would expect that patients in countries with socialized health insurance (like Canada), or socialized health care (like the UK) would be even farther removed from the actual cost of healthcare than their US counterparts. Why are their healthcare costs not dramatically more out of control than costs in the US?