 This is Susan. She and her husband both worked full-time to support their three children. But even with their dual incomes, they're fine to get more and more difficult to afford health insurance. How could one visit be this expensive? Wait until you see how much your husband's resuscitation's gonna cost. Incidences like this, combined with their anxiety over rising premiums, is turning their American dream into sleepless nights. Why can't Susan and her family catch a break? It wasn't always this way. The health care spending crisis didn't start until the mid-1960s, around the same time when Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law, and also at the same time that we began requiring doctors to go through all sorts of expensive licensing procedures beyond medical school. Why? Well, there's a few reasons. Everyone wants health care, but there's only so much to go around, and short supply leads to high prices. Normally what happens in a marketplace is that when prices are high, entrepreneurs try to profit by finding more affordable ways to provide these goods and services. The more people become involved in providing these services, the less scarce they become, and the lower the prices drop so that over time, more and more people can afford them. This is what happened to televisions, microwaves, computers, cell phones, internet service, delivery services, food, shipping, transportation, air travel, entertainment, home security, fitness, yoga, massages, veterinarian services, and even all the medical technology, like LASIK, that isn't as heavily regulated or controlled by government. What do I have that the common man doesn't? This beautiful television set, and this microwave and refrigerator. Sorry, but everyone can afford those now. Oh, curse you entrepreneurs. You never cease to allow the common man to catch up to me, but at least they'll never be able to talk on the phone while in a car. Okay, so I see what you're saying about the market driving prices down, but who says government can't? Well, let me explain what happened with Medicare and Medicaid as an example. In 1965, these two single-payer health insurance programs were instituted in the U.S. These programs made the unfortunate less dependent on impartial private charities and more dependent on political institutions and pharmaceutical companies. On top of that, these programs consistently require tax increases, and because they function more to satisfy the healthcare industry than the worker, they continually lead to more expensive and wasteful ways of treating patients. As a result, prices continually rise, making it more difficult for people like Susan and her family to afford health insurance. Not only that, but in 1965, the government also took over the training of new doctors, and in 1997, they limited the number of new doctors they would train at 110,000 per year, and the number hasn't changed since. Even worse, our government won't let migrant doctors from developed Western countries practice in the U.S. without undergoing this training. As a result, experienced doctors from other countries are less likely to want to practice medicine in the U.S. This contributes to the scarcity of doctors, making healthcare even more expensive. Well, I see that those programs didn't work as intended, but I'm sure Obamacare will. Won't that solve the problem? Unfortunately, Obamacare suffers from similar problems. It eliminated the pricing structure by seriously restricting competition because all providers have to offer the same kinds of plans at the same price, and because the price isn't really determined by the market, providers can charge the taxpayer way more than they could have otherwise. It's basically just a handout to the big insurance companies. I guess people like me just can't catch a break. But it doesn't have to be this way. If we get the government out of healthcare, more people like Susan will be able to get the care they need. Thanks so much for watching. If you liked this video and want to learn more about the topic, please check out fee.org for more content. Thank you so much.