[pure_ambition]

I stand by this: Physicians in the US are some of the only people who are paid what they deserve, in terms of authentic human value delivered. And only in the US are they paid what they deserve. They deserve their semi-monopolistic trade union.

Admin bloat is a far larger problem, and so are the pharmaceutical companies which get to charge the government whatever they want to develop new drugs that often are only marginally effective.

[dantillberg]

I appreciate the defense of doctors wages for great work; I would agree that many doctors absolutely deserve it and more.

But this "semi-monopolistic trade union" not only inflates their wages (which maybe that's a good thing), but it also harms the lives of the population they purport to serve. Many (most imo) people in the US simply cannot afford the monopoly's prices, and the monopoly has little incentive to innovate. This cartel of doctors actively prevents lower-cost, more efficient alternatives from coming to market.

[1980phipsi]

Noah Smith has had some good posts on health care costs in the US over the past year

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-companies-arent-the-...

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/service-costs-arent-exploding-...

[stackskipton]

Linking blog articles that bury the lead behind paywall make it impossible to discuss anything.

However, at the core, US insurance system is the problem because it gets compounded by government trying to regulate such a system, so people do not die needlessly, but not destroy these profit seeking enterprises. So, what you end up with is a massive mess that leaves everybody cranky.

[tptacek]

Pharmaceuticals cost 15% of what we pay in delivery of health services from doctors.

[mothballed]

I'd have no problem if they were just a trade union. In fact they are a systemic machine of mass violence, capturing the regulatory apparatus of government to use men with guns to enforce their licensing regime which of course you must walk through the pearly gates of their institutions to be blessed under.