[bigchewy]

the challenge is that ~40% of healthcare spend is even plausibly directed by the patient. the majority is not elective, a result of an acute situation, etc. The concept of free market, unfortunately, doesn't work. It's easy to confuse this because most people on HN are (relatively) healthy. 15% of the population consumes 80% of total healthcare spend. These are the ones that we need to solve for

Sources: lots of research I could link to but don't have handy and, with great dismay/frustration, I've spent a decade analyzing the root causes of US healthcare spend.

[nickff]

How much does the government have to intervene in this market before it is at least partially culpable for the problems? Will government be blamed for any systemic problems even when there is a single-payer system, or will the problems then be attributed to underfunding?