The "Free Market" Failure of the American Healthcare System

And there’s more to ramble on about - big insurers don’t have to reduce premiums because they have unique monopolies (you get a job with a company that insures through Insurer X, you’re gonna take Insurer X over whatever competition might ostensibly be in your state because of the financial advantage) - but all of which is to say what many have said before: this is no market, not in the traditional sense.

Well, I’m not sure I agree with that. True, an employee of The Company is going to take the insurance that’s offered, as you say. But in that scenario, market forces come into play when The Company makes the decision to go with Insurer X, as opposed to Insurer Y or Z. Presumably, The Company is going to do their due diligence in getting the best deal they can (as their ability to attract talent depends in part upon offering the best insurance possible).

tl;dr With respect to employer-offered HC insurance, ‘the market’ exists at a level above that of the final HC consumer.

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I’m not arguing ya or nay (haven’t really looked at it) just pointing out Zep’s faulty logic.

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Completely agree, but that second-tier market leaves out much to be desired that would take place in a traditional market - meaning consumers get stuck with networks and doctors they’d otherwise not prefer, etc. And the existence of that second-tier market means that the way the consumer/employees brings to bear market forces to correct or improve an employer’s selection of a plan is to change jobs - but as we know, that’s not easy to do.

So I agree there is a market, just not one that serves consumers/employees in a way a traditional market would.

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That is certainly true. However, it is also probably inescapable. This gets back to a point I made upthread–that being (as first pointed out 50+ years ago by Kenneth Arrow in his seminal academic paper on the subject), HC is uniquely ill-suited to being allowed to self-regulate via free-market forces.

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Is paying more and getting less part of the “value” system? Because there doesn’t seem to be much value in that equation.

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Look it up derelict.

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As usual you miss the point. Big Pharma is stopping treatments from coming to the fore like stem cells and like they tried to do with medicinal marijuana. Because they don’t like competition. While most people on this forum would like to blame the government for the high cost of clinical trials, Big Pharma loves it as smaller co.'s can’t afford it and that keeps competition down so they can keep their monopolization of the industry.

“In the US you are free to choose a treatment or fly to another nation if you want”. But you are not fee to choose in the U.S.
Which countries stop their citizens from going out of the country?

Never voted for a Democrat. And Sanders was killing Trump in the polls. Social reforms are coming as greedy capitalists pushed things too far. As they want more.

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Maybe the polls are mixed but inching ever towards single-payer.

Having “access” is much different than being able to afford something. Everyone here has access to buy a Ferrari but very few can.

I’m not sure why you felt the need to direct this statement toward me specifically. But nevertheless, I agree.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Definition of derelict
1
: abandoned especially by the owner or occupant derelict warehouses; also : run-down a derelict neighborhood
2
: lacking a sense of duty : negligent derelict in his duty derelict landlords

Nope, definitely doesn’t mean what you think it means.

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In the example I just posted: The United Kingdom. Also Cuba. I don’t know of any other ones without a Google search.

tramp, vagrant, vagabond, down and out, homeless person, drifter; beggar, mendicant; outcast; informal bag lady, hobo, bum.

Maybe I should have put the word intellectual before it.

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Any proof that the U.K. and Cuba DO NOT allow their citizens to go to another country for some reason of health?

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Wow, even with the definition written down you still fucked it up. Impressive.

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The article I posted for the UK. There are other examples if you Google.

Many Cuban citizens cannot leave Cuba for any reason. That’s why they swim or build peasant rafts to float 90 miles to Florida.

You’re a moron because they have worse results.

Last year 45,000 Canadians paid for their universal health care then crossed into the United States and paid again out of pocket for real healthcare.