I think with some regulation the free market could work...
NO HALF MEASURES!
Is Real Free-Market Health Care Even Possible?
Why is health care so expensive? Because people don’t pay for it. Their employers do. We need to eliminate the middle man. But much easier said than done.
MATT LEWIS
06.28.17
...
Politics is about compromise, but liberals have a built-in advantage when it comes to health care. Consider this: If a progressive wants a single-payer system but instead settles for a watered-down version that doesn’t work, eventually the solution will be more governmental involvement. So liberals benefit from incrementalism. But if a quasi-conservative model using Rube Goldberg gimmicks to incentivize universal coverage fails, the solution is never going to be a pure laissez-faire system. The next step always includes more governmental involvement.
That is the pattern. Here, a quick history is in order.
...
Of course, that wasn’t the only force behind the disintermediation of our health care. During World War II, government intervention in wage controls had unintended consequences that are still being felt today. Businesses couldn’t woo top talent by offering them more money, so they instead sweetened job offers by adding fringe benefits, including health care. The result was a Catch-22: Because health insurance was paid for by a third party (your employer) instead of the beneficiary (you), there was no incentive to keep costs low. As a result, almost everybody had to be an employee—because health care costs were too high to pay for out-of-pocket.
We’re still living with the consequences today. As Sen. Rand Paul recently observed, “The reason capitalism doesn’t work in health care is the consumer is disconnected from the product… When you connect with the consumer, and the consumer cares about the price, guess what? The consumer will shop. And when the consumer shops, competition works. But we’re not really doing that in health care.”
And as Jeff Jacoby noted years ago, “Why is it that in every other field where enormous technological strides have been made, total costs have fallen over time, but in health care they have increased? The answer is simple: Health care costs so much because most of us pay so little for it. And we pay so little—out-of-pocket expenses amount to just 14 cents of every health dollar spent in this country—because a third party nearly always picks up the tab. For most working Americans, that third party is an insurance company paid by their employers.”
The next big change occurred in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act enshrined health care as a public responsibility. Once this paradigm has shifted, it becomes virtually impossible to introduce true competition into the market. Even when problems are caused by governmental interference, the solution will always be more governmental interference.
...
Is Real Free-Market Health Care Even Possible?
NO HALF MEASURES!
Is Real Free-Market Health Care Even Possible?
Why is health care so expensive? Because people don’t pay for it. Their employers do. We need to eliminate the middle man. But much easier said than done.
MATT LEWIS
06.28.17
...
Politics is about compromise, but liberals have a built-in advantage when it comes to health care. Consider this: If a progressive wants a single-payer system but instead settles for a watered-down version that doesn’t work, eventually the solution will be more governmental involvement. So liberals benefit from incrementalism. But if a quasi-conservative model using Rube Goldberg gimmicks to incentivize universal coverage fails, the solution is never going to be a pure laissez-faire system. The next step always includes more governmental involvement.
That is the pattern. Here, a quick history is in order.
...
Of course, that wasn’t the only force behind the disintermediation of our health care. During World War II, government intervention in wage controls had unintended consequences that are still being felt today. Businesses couldn’t woo top talent by offering them more money, so they instead sweetened job offers by adding fringe benefits, including health care. The result was a Catch-22: Because health insurance was paid for by a third party (your employer) instead of the beneficiary (you), there was no incentive to keep costs low. As a result, almost everybody had to be an employee—because health care costs were too high to pay for out-of-pocket.
We’re still living with the consequences today. As Sen. Rand Paul recently observed, “The reason capitalism doesn’t work in health care is the consumer is disconnected from the product… When you connect with the consumer, and the consumer cares about the price, guess what? The consumer will shop. And when the consumer shops, competition works. But we’re not really doing that in health care.”
And as Jeff Jacoby noted years ago, “Why is it that in every other field where enormous technological strides have been made, total costs have fallen over time, but in health care they have increased? The answer is simple: Health care costs so much because most of us pay so little for it. And we pay so little—out-of-pocket expenses amount to just 14 cents of every health dollar spent in this country—because a third party nearly always picks up the tab. For most working Americans, that third party is an insurance company paid by their employers.”
The next big change occurred in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act enshrined health care as a public responsibility. Once this paradigm has shifted, it becomes virtually impossible to introduce true competition into the market. Even when problems are caused by governmental interference, the solution will always be more governmental interference.
...
Is Real Free-Market Health Care Even Possible?
