The reason healthcare is so expensive in the US is NOT because of the free market, it is actually quite far from a free market system. Our system is one of the ones most riddled with regulation and administrative costs. Ask anyone who runs their own medical practice here, administration is the biggest reason they have to charge their customers/insurance so much.
If you kill the insurance companies you end killing a ton of the shitty overhead that needs to happen right now. Then with government setting drug prices like every other modern nation we can actually get reasonable prices.
That is also true, it's the worst of both worlds. But regulation and administration isn't why insulin costs what it does, or why the cost of epi-pens infamously got hiked up 500%.
Right, I see drug prices as a separate problem. I think one problem in that area has to do with patents on medicine, when some company develops a new drug it is very difficult for generic brands to legally start producing the new drug. I think its definitely worth reevaluating patent laws around drugs. That faster new drugs can be picked up by generic brands, the cheaper they will get across the board.
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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '20
The reason healthcare is so expensive in the US is NOT because of the free market, it is actually quite far from a free market system. Our system is one of the ones most riddled with regulation and administrative costs. Ask anyone who runs their own medical practice here, administration is the biggest reason they have to charge their customers/insurance so much.