[toldyouso2022]

Too many people, not enough healthcare resources

It's funny because with healthcare the US it's actually making people see the price, a price in numbers, of healthcare when it's under a government monopoly.

In they EU they put caps everywhere so you can't know the price society is paying for not having a free market in healthcare (but also the EU has a tiny bit more free market in healthcare than the US anyway so)

[atmavatar]

Before you hold the US system in too high esteem for its price "transparency", consider the following:

* Often (perhaps most of the time), a hospital will be unwilling/unable to quote you a price for a procedure.

* Even if they do quote you a price, it's a BS price: every insurance provider negotiates their own prices for procedures.

   * To further illustrate this point: while working on software to bring visibility regarding lost income, prospective clients were downright indignant that early versions calculating loss figures using the prices in their own system were useless because the prices themselves were meaningless.

* There is significant administrative overhead on costs. Take this with a grain of salt, but I've heard there can be as many as 10 administrators for every doctor to handle dealing with thousands of insurance providers, potentially also spanning primary, secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary insurance for a given patient.

[ldng]

BUT. It can be computed, and economist have done so. The US free healthcare market, all agglomerated and counted for, actually cost more than the so called awful French Healthcare (despite the fact that it has been undermined by politicians with vested interests ...)

And we're not even talking about hidden costs when the labour get sick and contaminate their co-worker or when it takes more time to recover because labour has poorly treated.

Ideology is one thing, reality another. Some market are not meant to be free. Period.

[xenospn]

Huh? You can get private insurance everywhere.