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In my view a free market can only work if participation is optional. When you have a heart attack you can't really negotiate with the ambulance or the hospital.
by Ididntdothis 7y ago
In my view a free market can only work if participation is optional. When you have a heart attack you can't really negotiate with the ambulance or the hospital. There needs to be some kind of regulations to keep costs in check. But I would advocate total price transparency so you can at least shop around before non-emergency treatments. Also, insured and uninsured patients need to be charged the same money.
- kthejoker2 7y ago> When you have a heart attack you can't really negotiate with the ambulance or the hospital I mean, in some crazy alternate universe, this is exactly what insurance is for. I pay you a fixed premium ahead of time in exchange for you paying out the costs when it occurs. Truly we're in the darkest timeline.
- wutbrodo 7y agoRight, my comment probably made it sound like I'm more in favor of a free market than I am. The point I was making that what we have now has so many deep flaws that it's likely that a free market would still be better, and a lot of the price stupidity you describe can be traced back to regulation encumbrance. Also note that I'm assuming some level of baseline regulation on the order of other industries, just as single-payer would still have some market characteristics (like choosing doctors etc).