3 ms·

missing: decentralized market-place (where doctors and hospitals auto-compete for patients, driving down cost and improving QoS)

• jjoonathan 12y ago
  I'd argue that it's more important to ensure competition between schools in the medical education pipeline. Competition downstream won't reduce prices unless we get X's boot off the hose feeding into the supply of medical professionals (where X is the AMA, congress, or whoever you believe comes out dirtiest in the "it's not my fault" game). We have 2/3 as many doctors per capita as other comparable countries. No amount of post-education market equilibration will suffice fix the fact that our doctors are (comparatively) overworked and overpriced. The market is slowly routing around the problem right as we speak by promoting nurses and offering new certification pathways, but it's happening slowly. If the local politics I've observed are any indication, the doctors are fighting tooth and nail while loudly claiming that they aren't. There are policy decisions that could dramatically accelerate the process.