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Our mostly private health care system is twice as expensive as the social systems in other developed countries because the government got involved? By what fra
by jjoonathan 5y ago
Our mostly private health care system is twice as expensive as the social systems in other developed countries because the government got involved?
By what fraction will the new set of tweaks have to shrink costs to pay for the last 30 years of the private health care market's failure to deliver on its "more efficient" promise? Remember, it has to cut them by 50% just to break even, and it'll have to go further to make this experiment worthwhile. A lot further.
Spoiler alert: it won't even get to 50%. It won't even get close to 50%.
- trixie_ 5y agoThere already is a massive public healthcare system in America called Medicare and Medicaid which is the root of distorted prices. The lack of price transparency adds fuel to the fire and allows those prices to stay high without any upfront awareness given to the end consumer.
- kibwen 5y agoA lack of price transparency is indeed deplorable, but it isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is that demand for emergency treatment is inelastic. Inelastic demand curves result in wildly volatile prices. And when the service is a basic human need rather than a luxury, to prioritize a free market solution is to prioritize the market over the human. Markets must operate for the good of people, not the other way around.
- jjoonathan 5y agoPrice transparency is shifting deck chairs on the titanic. I actually do think the new chair arrangement is a notable improvement on the old one -- but in an industry with unaddressed tectonic issues, it's not going to right the ship. I might be wrong. Maybe price transparency will lead to a 50% reduction in prices in the next few years. I doubt it, though.