4 ms·
One doesn't generally have a sudden and unexpected need for a very particular type of food that only relatively few specialists know how to produce.
by abstractbill 14y ago
One doesn't generally have a sudden and unexpected need for a very particular type of food that only relatively few specialists know how to produce.
- snowwrestler 14y agoBut this is not where the vast majority of health care costs come from. They mostly come from the care of chronic ailments.
- jpdoctor 14y agoExactly. As an example: One does not comparison shop for an ambulance service after a car accident, nor a surgeon after arriving at the hospital. And those charges for blood transfusions: Anyone up for a startup to find the lowest bidder?
- ef4 14y agoThe relevant question is: what is keeping the supply of specialists from growing to meet the demand? The AMA is essentially a guild. Everything it does in the name of quality is also a highly-effective way to keep wages high for its members. And that's hardly a coincidence. Could an innovative medical school train a particular kind of specialist to be just as effective in half the time, at half the cost? We'll never know, because that kind of innovation is illegal. The balance between cost and quality is not black and white. Plenty of patients might very well prefer to trade off one for the other. Today they have no choice -- there is only one standard, and the providers have every incentive to make that standard as expensive as possible.