Actually, it’s the exact opposite. It’s the lack of unfettered capitalism that has made healthcare so expensive: the inability of insurers to compete across state lines, the involvement of lobbyists in the legislative process (crony capitalism), the opaque pricing at hospitals and clinics.
It’s no wonder that hospitals charge exorbitant prices to those who can pay, because they need to find some way to cover the socialized medicine they’re forced by the government to provide in the emergency room. If “healthy” competition were allowed in the healthcare market, prices would be much lower.
It’s not.
Unfettered capitalism by lobbying groups have captured the healthcare market in the US which itself is a captive market as humans will pay almost anything to get better.
The problem is not socialized medicine or the insurance system (although single payer would be better) its that the system has been captured by corporate interests at every step to extract outsize profits…in drug distribution,hospital services, prescriptions, diagnostic services.
Unlike YOU it’s my job to know some of this stuff. In fact a company (ahem) I know very well has profited handsomely by charging for each item in a panel instead of a single panel for many years. So the test goes from $100 per patient to $800 per patient. That’s only possible because of lobbyists preventing regulation. In countries like Japan and Korea they target 5-10% of cost items for price reduction every year. Every year.
So after some reading, the reason for this claim is because the TPP would extend the patent period of drugs for drug companies (mainly in the USA) in non-US countries, resulting in decreased competition (due to no generic drugs being allowed to be marketed) for a longer time period, allowing the drug company to charge more and have a monopoly on sales.
It would also allow a 20-year monopoly for “new uses” of “old drugs”. Which seems like BS to me and just a way to get a drug with an expired patent back into exclusive use again.
Nice of Obama to endorse such a deal. Aren’t you glad Trump killed it?
By capitalism, I mean free competition in an open marketplace. When you have corporate lobbyists influencing legislation to tilt the playing field in their favor, you get the opposite. The result is government intervention in the market that reduces competition.[quote=“Brianjones, post:202, topic:80578”]
The problem is not socialized medicine or the insurance system (although single payer would be better) its that the system has been captured by corporate interests at every step to extract outsize profits…in drug distribution,hospital services, prescriptions, diagnostic services.
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This is the same thing. The system “being captured by corporate interests” is crony capitalism, using lobbyists to tilt the rules in their favor, increasing profits by reducing competition.
It’s definitely part of the problem. U.S. hospitals are required by law to provide emergency care to anyone who walks through the doors, regardless of their ability to pay. All that free medical care seriously affects hospitals’ bottom lines, so they jack up the costs of non-emergency tests and procedures to make up the difference.
If you’re going to socialize medicine, you need to start on the preventative end. The system as it’s set up now encourages those who can’t afford care to wait until small problems become emergencies, which is another factor contributing to sky high healthcare costs.
Thank you. I’m an ideological whore who’s liable to assemble with any group at any time depending who’s right on a particular issue. Memberships makes that hard.
Your membership in the Anarcho-Capitalist League is hereby revoked!
