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The US healthcare system is a patchwork of policy, local incentives, and unchecked capitalism that barely works, some of the time. You can read intent into it,
by Centigonal 2y ago
The US healthcare system is a patchwork of policy, local incentives, and unchecked capitalism that barely works, some of the time. You can read intent into it, but it's really just a big mass of inscrutable complexity.
That said, a lot of the time, inentionally or not, the answer is "it facilitates the transfer of money to the shareholders of the big private health insurance companies"
- from-nibly 2y ago> unchecked capitalism Of all the industries in the US Health Care is the MOST regulated. How on earth is that "unchecked"? The problem is the checks are (and always will be) written by the companies.
- Centigonal 2y agoyou're right, I really should have said "poorly regulated capitalism." My comment on "unchecked capitalism" was more of a commentary on the lack of trustbusting for vertically integrated behemoths like UHG/OptumHealth/Optum PBM/OptumRX and for regional near-monopolies like UPMC. Healthcare has a lot of regulations, for sure, but it adds a lot of complexity doesn't result in a good system for users -- so, bad regulation. OTOH, I think FSI regulations like Glass-Steagall and Dodd-Frank, as well as regulatory agencies like the SEC and CFPB (gasp!), have been huge successes for retail users of banks and financial markets -- so, better regulation.
- from-nibly 2y agoI'm not an expert, but I've worked at a bank and had to go through all the regulatory trainings. I didn't hear about any good regulation other than things that should be covered by regular law. Like apparently there's special regulation about basically not commiting fraud?! Everything else is some weird sneaky BS. Again not an expert. Just a guy who had to listen to some awfull training courses.