Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could briefly explain (from a free-market perspective) what’s wrong with the current U.S. healthcare system.
Thanks
- Still a big newbie
The biggest problem with the US healthcare system is that it’s not free-market.
The second problem is that it’s some weird mostly-government-partially-private hybrid, with the government side driving the cost up on the private side.
Third are all the licensing laws for medical professionals
Fourth are the insurance schemes, such as HMOs (federally-created in 1973).
That’s just a really brief listing.
and HIPAA laws, which im suprised this website hasn’t really written about. these are basically universal federal regulations on how health insurance companies should operate
The #1 problem is government licensing requirements for doctors.
The supply of doctors is artificially restricted. This guarantees that prices will always be high.
I get very offended that the mainstream media never mentions the damaging effect of State licensing requirements for doctors.
About health insurance…
Governments require insurance companies to cover such minor things as a sprained ankle?
Worse, they require them to cover things that the insuree has control over, like alcoholism. Also, the reason healthcare in the US is messed up is because it is in the middle of a government takeover. So right before the government makes the final push for a complete take over it has to make things look super terrible so the people will ask for it.
yeah there’s no free market in health insurance… there are regional obstructions in which different insurance companies via state regulations (maybe some federal not sure though) that lock out competition… I’ve been wondering if some inflationary process is at hand (such as the housing bubble where certain sectors can experience it more than others) and now I’ve been hearing Ron P. and Peter Schiff say it’s inflation too which makes me think there is something more to that. Seems that with government intervention almost all if not all roads lead back to monetary policy.
Read all of this…