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A comment on Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy. Parent comment

Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by metalliqaz on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @03:32PM (#24357021)
I would go further to say that what we have in the US doesn't even meet the minimum definition to be called a market. In addition to what you cited there is also massive regulation which can't be removed due to the nature of medicine, there is massive information asymmetry between patients and everyone else, and, oh yeah, the fact that a sick or injured person can't "shop around". It's insane.

When my wife was in the hospital for days after a C-section, we were entirely at their mercy. They could add anything they wanted to our bill and we had no idea if it was justified or not.

At the base of this pile of bullshit are simple, incontrovertible facts:

Health providers make money when their customers are unwell.

Insurance providers make money when they don't deal with the most vulnerable people.

Employers only care as far as keeping their employees able to return value.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by piva00 on Thursday September 03, 2020 @02:59AM (#24361465)
Maybe all of that says that healthcare can't be a market. Due to its very nature it's not suited to fit in a market model.

I don't understand why the USA is so adamant to see that forcing market solutions to every societal demand or problem might not be good a thing. To see that this ideology has had time enough to prove itself in the real world and has been found lacking. We need something different. Accepting that there are no absolutes and that perhaps some things shouldn't be market-based doesn't sound too revolutionary for a start...

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Re:Half of Americans fear a health-related bankruptcy by metalliqaz on Thursday September 03, 2020 @10:07AM (#24364170)
There are markets that can work in healthcare, but my point is that individual patients CANNOT partake, they don't have the information, power, or even agency (ie. currently bleeding to death). There could be a market of providers to payers, but again, care must be taken to ensure the interests of the payers aligns with the interests of the patients.
[ Parent | on HN ]