Re:The U.S. tried to build a new fleet of ventilators
by zozbot234 on Sunday March 29, 2020 @04:05PM
(#22722214)
There's no "free market" in healthcare; it's one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the economy. It's a known side-effect of regulation that big and politically-connected firms are advantaged over smaller and leaner ones, market power tends to increase in lockstep with the regulatory burden, and a lot of price gouging becomes feasible that wouldn't occur in a more contestable environment.
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Re:The U.S. tried to build a new fleet of ventilators
by pdonis on Sunday March 29, 2020 @06:18PM
(#22723292)
Not only is health care regulated, it isn't even a market in the correct sense, because the people actually getting the health care services--patients--don't even know how much the services themselves cost. Which means that nobody is in a position to judge whether the services are worth what they cost. This isn't a market at all, it's a recipe for disaster. Which of course is exactly what we have.