Current Events > when it comes to health care, one persons's prices are another person's salary

(+) Yeah! (+)

thats why its so difficult to find any sort of political mechanism to keep price increases in check

Conservatives want to bring down prices by making consumers responsible for more of their own health care costs, hoping to create something that looks more like a traditional consumer-goods market. But recent research suggests that approach doesnt work.

Liberals tend to favor more direct government price controls but some providers are already seeking higher and higher prices from commercial insurance to make up for the lower payments they receive from government programs.

http://www.healthcostinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2016-Report-News-Release-1-16-18v2-1.pdf

Americans used the same amount or less health care in
2016 compared to 2015, but rising prices caused overall spending in 2016 to grow faster than
any time in the last five years, according to a report released today by the Health Care Cost
Institute (HCCI)
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Which is why neither answer is correct. We need to force the government to either pay full price or abandon subsidies. We need to abandon the restrictions on selling insurance across state lines. We need to remove 'minimum coverage' mandates. We need to ban medical companies (care systems, drug manufacturers, insurance companies) from advertising and 'future research' fees.
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Doctors don't work for free, and you are not entitled to their labor just because you have a need (that's a form of slavery). Healthcare is still a finite resource, and the function of the markets is to most efficiently allocate resources based on supply/demand and ability/desire to pay. Healthcare is arguably more fair of a market than commodities since it's a service that can't be stored or monopolized.

In terms of the costs, the average American is becoming progressively fatter and less healthy every year, and those Americans should be taking responsibility for the additional health care burden their lifestyle and decisions place on the system.
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In terms of the costs, the average American is becoming progressively fatter and less healthy every year, and those Americans should be taking responsibility for the additional health care burden their lifestyle and decisions place on the system.

But but but but but but muh freedom
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darkjedilink posted...

Which is why neither answer is correct. We need to force the government to either pay full price or abandon subsidies. We need to abandon the restrictions on selling insurance across state lines. We need to remove 'minimum coverage' mandates. We need to ban medical companies (care systems, drug manufacturers, insurance companies) from advertising and 'future research' fees.

interesting ideas, I might be okay with doing those things.

The Admiral posted...

Doctors don't work for free, and you are not entitled to their labor just because you have a need (that's a form of slavery). Healthcare is still a finite resource, and the function of the markets is to most efficiently allocate resources based on supply/demand and ability/desire to pay. Healthcare is arguably more fair of a market than commodities since it's a service that can't be stored or monopolized.

There is a fundamental tradeoff between efficiency and equity, though. Typically people don't have a problem with inequitable distributions of coffee, but most people view health care differently. What's that saying about atheists in foxholes? There's really almost no one who is going to be okay with their loved one being turned away from life-saving care just because they can't pay. How about you?

The Admiral posted...

In terms of the costs, the average American is becoming progressively fatter and less healthy every year, and those Americans should be taking responsibility for the additional health care burden their lifestyle and decisions place on the system.

To me this seems more like an empty slogan than an actual idea. As noted, research doesn't suggest that the proposed ways to improve personal responsibility are working (HDHP and the like), so essentially you are saying we should deny these people care if they can't pay, because that is what it would require for them to take not burden our health care system. You can shift the costs onto hospitals instead of consumers but that's not really a long-term solution.
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