It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics

Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics by jstrong on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @10:59AM (#26002524)

even the US market has very extensive government intervention in it, so I don't think it's a valid comparison to say, US has free market health care and is expensive, while some other place has socialized medicine and is cheap. personally, I am not aware of any good examples of a thriving, free market health care system. it does seem to me that the health care market writ large is spectacularly dysfunctional, as are a handful of other sectors that also have significant government involvement, while many other parts of the economy seem to be miraculously efficient and competent by comparison.

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Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics by ModernMech on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @11:07AM (#26002647)

"US has free market health care and is expensive"

The US has a market for private healthcare, but healthcare will never be a free market. It's the antithesis of a free market. Intrinsic inequality of bargaining power and information asymmetry are the biggest reasons for this.

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Re:It’s time for a new, progressive supply-side economics by repsilat on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @02:03PM (#26005099)

> Intrinsic inequality of bargaining power

This point is usually brought up in regards to healthcare emergencies. But emergencies only make up a small fraction of healthcare spending[1].

Maybe people have less bargaining power because of agreements with providers/insurers. That's a barrier to an effective market with price sensitivity, but it's a contingent one, not a mathematically inevitable one. For much of our healthcare spending the balance of bargaining power could look like it does for food.

1: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/oct/28/nick-gille...

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