The Better of Two Bureaucrats (a healthcare perspective from NPR)

[iamacyborg]

Why do you think health care costs are rising? Why do you think education has become so expensive? Why do you think housing got so expensive?

The effect of markets is to drive DOWN costs and drive quality UP. The only reason that isn't happening with health care is because there isn't a free market in health care, it's heavily interfered with by the government (tax code). Same with education, same with housing. The solution is not more government, it's less.

Most doctors are not economists.

[Carly8Corday]

I know! Like we did with the big investment banks, and AIG. Duh. Success speaks for itself.

Thanks, cyborg. You rock.

[iamacyborg]

1. Federal Reserve manipulated interest rates to 1%. At a market interest rate, there would be less incentive to speculate and no cheap money to do it with.

2. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government chartered entities, originated and securitized a large portion of the sub prime loans.

3. The Federal Government implicitly guaranteed the sub prime loans (which they made good on, with your money).

4. To the extent the banks made bad decisions, they should have gone bankrupt.

[amisme]

The effect of markets is to generate greater returns for less expenditure. Not for you, the consumer, but for them, the producer. Leaving health care to the free market and profit incentives is to minimize the care we get while maximizing the costs we pay. That is the definition of efficiency.

When you have producers in a highly competitive market, they will maximize their efficiency in a way that is generally beneficial to the consumer. Health care is not highly competitive.

[iamacyborg]

The solution is to remove government controls which prevent competition in healthcare.

1. Allow purchasing insurance across state lines.

2. Remove state mandated licencing requirements for doctors, allowing for market certification entities to emerge.

3. Remove tax breaks for employer provided health insurance.

4. Remove legal barriers to entry in insurance and health care markets.

5. Remove AMA lobbied restriction for schools which can teach doctors who can then legally practice.

[iamacyborg]

Keep in mind also that producer's profits are 100% contingent on # of units sold, so the natural market tendency is NOT to raise consumer prices, the natural market tendency is for prices to gravitate towards zero for a given product. If there is a market for more comprehensive coverage, it will be provided at the lowest possible cost, same with demand for less comprehensive such as catastrophic only insurance. They are separate products with separate demand curves.

[zx92027xz]

very good.