I think we agree fundamentally. In a free market, insurance can be a viable product and a sensible purchase. But it isn'ta free market at all: not for insurance, and not for medical care.
Medical costs are too high, because it hasn't been a free market. In particular the supply of doctors and nurses is limited. Best evidence is that medical schools turn down huge numbers of qualified applicants each year, and the number of graduating doctors each year is fully controlled by a monopoly, the ACGME (Assoc of Collegiate Graduate Medical Education). The costs should be much lower.
Insurance is also not a free market by any stretch, starting with the fact that it's a mandated purchase for most corporations, and for most individuals thanks to Obamacare. It's more like a regulated utility with an insurance component than actual insurance.
Add in the fact that medical bills including hospital bills are only incidentally related to actual cost. There's a huge cost bubble that doesn't reflect true costs at all.
There are ways it can be reformed, if the government approaches it in good faith. But I've lost confidence in gov't's good faith. I'd much rather see a totally unregulated market.
Not to mention that most doctors can't cure anything anyway; they're only trained in symptom suppression, culturing a chronically ill population. But that's a whole 'nother can of worms.
I think we agree fundamentally. In a free market, insurance can be a viable product and a sensible purchase. But it isn'ta free market at all: not for insurance, and not for medical care.
Medical costs are too high, because it hasn't been a free market. In particular the supply of doctors and nurses is limited. Best evidence is that medical schools turn down huge numbers of qualified applicants each year, and the number of graduating doctors each year is fully controlled by a monopoly, the ACGME (Assoc of Collegiate Graduate Medical Education). The costs should be much lower.
Insurance is also not a free market by any stretch, starting with the fact that it's a mandated purchase for most corporations, and for most individuals thanks to Obamacare. It's more like a regulated utility with an insurance component than actual insurance.
Add in the fact that medical bills including hospital bills are only incidentally related to actual cost. There's a huge cost bubble that doesn't reflect true costs at all.
There are ways it can be reformed, if the government approaches it in good faith. But I've lost confidence in gov't's good faith. I'd much rather see a totally unregulated market.
Not to mention that most doctors can't cure anything anyway; they're only trained in symptom suppression, culturing a chronically ill population. But that's a whole 'nother can of worms.