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> Ending the price discrimination would also be a great thing. Same service = same price. This is actually an anti-libertarian idea. But is a very good idea.
by IvyMike 14y ago
> Ending the price discrimination would also be a great thing. Same service = same price.
This is actually an anti-libertarian idea.
But is a very good idea. This is a service industry, not a manufacturing industry, so there is very little "economy of scale" coming into play, and the consumers with the least ability to pay have the highest prices.
Heck, you could even say "prices must be within a factor of 4" and it would still be an improvement over today's system.
- guylhem 14y agoIf it was a working market, with published MSRP and true competition, price discrimination could theoretically be used to increase surplus. But it's not currently a market! At the moment, it's not. I'm not concerned with dogma so much - I care about efficiency. Ideally, all regulations would be removed. But we are not starting from scratch - we have the current status of healthcare. We want to go to a working market - the question is how can we do that? Enforcing uniform prices is a step in the right direction - because the uninsured will stop subsidizing the abnormal low rates insurance companies can strongharm the hospital.