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I don't understand why governments allow to privatize hospitals or other public ressources, often with the reasoning that otherwise they wouldn't be profitable.

I don't understand why governments allow to privatize hospitals or other public ressources, often with the reasoning that otherwise they wouldn't be profitable. We don't expect other public services like fire departments or road construction to make money. Why should hospitals be treated differently?

ImHereToVote 3y ago
Because there is no practical way for rich people to use luxury fire departments that deprive the filthy proles of protection, or luxury roads for that matter.
derbOac 3y ago
My sense (as someone with generations of family in healthcare) is, at least in the US, there's a massive gap between what the healthcare system was like decades ago and how it functions now. At one point in the distant past there was probably a better balance of population size and number of providers, service demand and provider type, a greater number of more independent and locally run hospitals and clinics, less regulation about certain important issues, more permanent employee positions with more standard employer benefits, and so forth and so on. At least in some areas of the US there used to be public hospitals, run at the local (state or county level) but they were essentially privatized or defunded to the point where they had to close or become privatized. I could give lots of examples of this, but things now are less local, more controlled by centralized, private but national entities, more regulation, more consolidation of clinics and hospitals, and so forth and so on. I'm for putting more central resources in public control (government insurance, more public clinics and hospitals) but also believe there needs to be more deregulation of important elements and more competition to drive down costs on the supply end. In my opinion, there's a lot of hidden factors driving up healthcare costs, in the form of insulating providers and hospital and clinic chains from competition, taking choice aware from consumers, decreasing transparency about costs, as well as "hiding" public funding of healthcare that's already happening. It feels a bit like, in the US at least, we have this system that likes to pretend it's 1960, at least insofar as doing so benefits certain people and groups.

ImHereToVote 3y ago

Because there is no practical way for rich people to use luxury fire departments that deprive the filthy proles of protection, or luxury roads for that matter.

derbOac 3y ago

My sense (as someone with generations of family in healthcare) is, at least in the US, there's a massive gap between what the healthcare system was like decades ago and how it functions now. At one point in the distant past there was probably a better balance of population size and number of providers, service demand and provider type, a greater number of more independent and locally run hospitals and clinics, less regulation about certain important issues, more permanent employee positions with more standard employer benefits, and so forth and so on. At least in some areas of the US there used to be public hospitals, run at the local (state or county level) but they were essentially privatized or defunded to the point where they had to close or become privatized. I could give lots of examples of this, but things now are less local, more controlled by centralized, private but national entities, more regulation, more consolidation of clinics and hospitals, and so forth and so on. I'm for putting more central resources in public control (government insurance, more public clinics and hospitals) but also believe there needs to be more deregulation of important elements and more competition to drive down costs on the supply end. In my opinion, there's a lot of hidden factors driving up healthcare costs, in the form of insulating providers and hospital and clinic chains from competition, taking choice aware from consumers, decreasing transparency about costs, as well as "hiding" public funding of healthcare that's already happening. It feels a bit like, in the US at least, we have this system that likes to pretend it's 1960, at least insofar as doing so benefits certain people and groups.