Andylusion
Platinum Member
The entire problem with the pharma, is government. More government, is not a solution, to a government caused problem.
You want lower prices on drugs? Deregulate the entire pharma industry. Open the market. Get government out of buying drugs.
As long as you create a system through government that is able to be manipulated, then it will be manipulated. If you open an investigation, they will simply remove one manipulator, and replace them with another manipulator.
The solution is not have a system that can be manipulated.
When has deregulation NOT bitten the consumer in the ass?
Like every single time it's been tried?
Do you know that cell phone, is a perfect example? Prior to the 2000s, it was nearly impossible for cell phones to get wide areas of coverage. The FCC started auctioning off spectrum, which gave rise to nation wide coverage, AND drastically reduced the cost to produce cell phones. Before it was horribly expensive to get the spectrum needed, which increased the cost of service.
So that alone is a perfect example.
Another would be the airlines, which after deregulation, prices fell by nearly half.
View attachment 295440
It would be hard to cite an example where deregulation had a negative effect.
The UK broadband internet is a great example. While speeds are not significantly faster (contrary to claims), what is true is that prices are lower. By opening the market up to as much competition as possible, having many companies competing in a free and open market, the price is significantly cheaper in the UK for broadband, than here in the highly regulated US market.
Another example would be banking. Many of the banking regulations we have in the US, have never existed elsewhere in the world. Yet the sub-prime crash happened here, not in Canada, or the UK, or the EU, where no such regulations exist.
I could go on and on.
Mobile phone: My Father had a mobile phone in his car in 1962, that was able to call anywhere a landline called. I've had briefcase, backpack, brick, flip, smart, satellite phone, no issue.
Airfare: As long as your flying to a subsidized airport (Vegas for instance) airfare isn't that cheap.
Trucking and healthcare deregulation are prime examples of the consumers and/or workers getting fucked.
Trucking has also declined in price, which is why consumers have cheaper goods and a higher standard of living.
Health care deregulation? Surely you are insane. There is no example of 'deregulation' of health care that I can think of.
If you want to look at deregulated healthcare, look at medical tourism. Where do people go for medical tourism? To non-regulated non-government hospitals in other countries, that are a fraction of the cost of our highly regulated hospitals.
I hope you're not writing that shipping a package is less cost today than prior to deregulation.
Healthcare deregulation: Reagan deregulated the HMO act.
The US has the most expensive healthcare on the planet. This is due to healthcare insurers owning or deriving profit from 95% of healthcare providers. This was caused by DEREGULATION.
Um... well if you look at the facts.... the facts are deregulation of the trucking industry, caused prices to drop, and they did drop.
Deregulation has worked well. Between 1977, the year before the ICC started to decontrol the industry, and 1982, rates for truckload-size shipments fell about 25 percent in real, inflation-adjusted terms.
Trucking Deregulation, by Thomas Gale Moore: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty
Trucking Deregulation, by Thomas Gale Moore: The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics | Library of Economics and Liberty
This is a well documented economic fact.
As for HMOs. I can't find anything conclusive about Reagan deregulating HMOs.
What I did find, was that Medicare in the 1980s was causing doctors and hospitals to refuse to serve government patients. The government had no choice but to 'deregulate' how much medicare paid out, or risk having patients across the country end up refused by every doctor and hospital.
This still true today. People keep claiming we can 'save money' by negotiating lower rates with health care providers, and the result is health care providers simply refuse to care for patients.
Medicare, the government insurance company for everyone over age 65 (and for the disabled) pays fees to primary care physicians that guarantee bankruptcy.
Additionally, 70% of hospitals in the United States lose money on Medicare patients. That’s right, for every patient over age 65, it costs the hospital more to deliver care than the government reimburses. That is why Mayo Clinic has said it will not accept Medicare payments for primary care physician visits. Mayo gets it.
Why the Mayo Clinic is refusing to see Medicare patients
Additionally, 70% of hospitals in the United States lose money on Medicare patients. That’s right, for every patient over age 65, it costs the hospital more to deliver care than the government reimburses. That is why Mayo Clinic has said it will not accept Medicare payments for primary care physician visits. Mayo gets it.
Why the Mayo Clinic is refusing to see Medicare patients
This is the reality. Health care costs money. Having "Medicare-for-all" isn't going to fix this. It will just mean our bankrupt government will be deeper in debt.