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by znnajdla 6 days ago
It’s neither a matter of profits nor costs. It’s a matter of incentives. The basic principle of capitalism can’t work if the buyer doesn’t have a choice, if the buyer is not the one who usually pays, and if the payer has a way of avoiding responsibility to pay. The privatized health insurance system is truly and completely fucked up.
2 comments
xenadu02 6 days ago
By definition a free market in healthcare requires forcing some people to die from a treatable injury or condition to discover the optimal price. That's part of the definition.
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EvanAnderson 6 days ago
Because the supply is constrained I feel like that's the case regardless of how the system is financed. (There are only so many providers, facilities, etc.)

It seems like the core problems with US "system" come from having a "shadow" socialized system (by way of EMTALA[0]) that offloads costs onto the "free market" (read: patients or insurers who can pay) and a shocking inability to have a mature public conversation about how care will be rationed. (That conversation still happens but it's between providers and insurers and not subject to public scrutiny.)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_an...

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collingreen 6 days ago
Only if free means pure or academic here.

Free market usefully means both sides can choose to participate in transactions which means price is how they do that. It is a useful concept but it doesn't cover everything, like what you mentioned and things like if emergency patients are shopping around hospitals or if the average consumer is capable of being well informed in such a market.

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Spooky23 6 days ago
The buyer and sellers are frequently wrong. The buyer isn’t the patient, it’s the employer. The insurer is either charging a premium for risk or servicing work for a self-pay employer.

The biggest buyer is the Federal government and by law they are required to get the best deal, the government also restricts the supply of providers. It’s not a capitalist system at all. It’s a weird hybrid command economy with a consolidating cartel of providers and administrators.

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