3 ms·
are you really blaming healthcare bloat on the government and not the colossal for-profit industry that the vast majority of healthcare is funneled through?
by micromacrofoot 5y ago
are you really blaming healthcare bloat on the government and not the colossal for-profit industry that the vast majority of healthcare is funneled through?
- etchalon 5y agoIt's a fairly standard argument, that makes absolutely no sense.
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoThey go hand in hand. Ever heard of "regulatory capture"? The government is very involved in restricting the supply side of healthcare.
- micromacrofoot 5y agoOh sure, but when people blame "the government" it's usually a thinly veiled suggestion that "less government" is the solution. The money that pushes this regulatory capture comes largely from health insurance companies, which might be the most vile industry I'm obligated to interact with on a regular basis. This is an industry that for a long period of time would refuse to cover health conditions simply because you were born with them.
- CountSessine 5y agoThe US healthcare system has just enough private ownership to allow private interests to profit from it, just enough public involvement to get taxpayers to pay for it, and just enough regulation in the right places to conceal who pays for treatment and to disconnect incentives. Go all public and expand Medicare and move to a single-payer system like Canada and the UK. Or go all private by killing Medicare altogether, fixing Medicaid as a public backstop, and heavily regulating pricing and doctors' salaries and insurance premiums like Germany and Switzerland. But anything is more humane than the weird mix the US has come up with.