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It's much easier to switch to different options with food than it is with healthcare. For example, if cartel forms around tropical fruits, people can switch to

It's much easier to switch to different options with food than it is with healthcare. For example, if cartel forms around tropical fruits, people can switch to apples. This makes it much more difficult for someone to exert market power over the food market than over the medical market. Medical care also often involves crisis situations where you absolutely need care right now so you don't have much leverage. On the other hand, most of the time people have some flexibility in how much they eat, when they eat, and what they eat.

SkyBelow 2y ago
Healthcare prices aren't only high for emergency care, so it shows that the emergency nature of the work isn't the issue. I'm sure doing a statistical regression would show roughly what percentage of the issue is due to it, but I would expect it to be very low given the prices of things like medication needed on an ongoing basis where one could shop around, if it was legal to do so. One can also look at elective or non-emergency surgeries, especially those where people use medical tourism to find cheaper options. That is an extreme form of shopping around, which they have to do because more local forms of shopping around are legally banned.
Arnt 2y ago
If a cartel forms around tropical fruits… that strikes me as a strange and unreal example. Private equity buys supermarket chains in the real world. There are about six supermarket chaions in the city where I live. Most people will struggle to guess which ones are owned by private equity (one isn't), but almost everyone can name at least a couple of hospitals that aren't.
- Turing_Machine 2y ago
  > If a cartel forms around tropical fruits… that strikes me as a strange and unreal example. It may seem unreal to you, but I can assure you that it actually happened at one point. It was a duopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Fruit_Company
  - Arnt 2y ago
    Good for podcasters who need weird and unusual events for their podcast stories. Less good if you want to understand the world.
    - Turing_Machine 2y ago
      What? The history of Central America is essentially the history of these companies. Looking into it will give you more "understanding of the world" than you probably think.
pdonis 2y ago
> It's much easier to switch to different options with food than it is with healthcare. It wouldn't be if the supply of health care were not artificially restricted by regulation. > Medical care also often involves crisis situations No, medical care sometimes involves crisis situations. But much more often it doesn't. A sane health care system would treat these two cases very differently. Care for crisis situations would be handled by insurance because that's what insurance is for: unexpected situations that you can't pay for out of pocket. But routine care would not. However, our system is not sane, and insists on bundling these two things together when that makes no sense.

SkyBelow 2y ago

Healthcare prices aren't only high for emergency care, so it shows that the emergency nature of the work isn't the issue. I'm sure doing a statistical regression would show roughly what percentage of the issue is due to it, but I would expect it to be very low given the prices of things like medication needed on an ongoing basis where one could shop around, if it was legal to do so. One can also look at elective or non-emergency surgeries, especially those where people use medical tourism to find cheaper options. That is an extreme form of shopping around, which they have to do because more local forms of shopping around are legally banned.

Arnt 2y ago

If a cartel forms around tropical fruits… that strikes me as a strange and unreal example. Private equity buys supermarket chains in the real world. There are about six supermarket chaions in the city where I live. Most people will struggle to guess which ones are owned by private equity (one isn't), but almost everyone can name at least a couple of hospitals that aren't.

Turing_Machine 2y ago
> If a cartel forms around tropical fruits… that strikes me as a strange and unreal example. It may seem unreal to you, but I can assure you that it actually happened at one point. It was a duopoly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Fruit_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Fruit_Company
- Arnt 2y ago
  Good for podcasters who need weird and unusual events for their podcast stories. Less good if you want to understand the world.
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
    What? The history of Central America is essentially the history of these companies. Looking into it will give you more "understanding of the world" than you probably think.

pdonis 2y ago

> It's much easier to switch to different options with food than it is with healthcare. It wouldn't be if the supply of health care were not artificially restricted by regulation. > Medical care also often involves crisis situations No, medical care sometimes involves crisis situations. But much more often it doesn't. A sane health care system would treat these two cases very differently. Care for crisis situations would be handled by insurance because that's what insurance is for: unexpected situations that you can't pay for out of pocket. But routine care would not. However, our system is not sane, and insists on bundling these two things together when that makes no sense.