Comment by nradov

2 months ago

Yes to both. High costs were previously partly hidden by subsidies for some consumers purchasing individual or family policies on state ACA exchanges, and now many of them will be forced to pay something closer to the true market price. But just like with college tuition, when the government throws money at a problem that ends up causing costs to explode without permanently improving affordability.

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nradov

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robocat  2 months ago

> true market price

There can be no market clearing price, because healthcare demand is unlimited.

In some countries supply is rationed by using different means such as waiting lists, budgets for funding, or even corruption (I witnessed this in Cuba).

  • mritterhoff  2 months ago

    > because healthcare demand is unlimited.

    How's that? Beyond some level of care I suspect demand drops of a cliff. No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.

    • atmavatar  2 months ago

      I'm sure they're talking about necessary healthcare - e.g., cancer drugs, insulin, dialysis, heart surgery, etc.

      When giving the option of parting ways with some more money or dying, virtually no one is going to choose the latter.

      Unfortunately, the US healthcare system is set up to extract maximum capital from people who interact with it. Worse: it's not alone. For example, the reason food in the US has so much sugar, salt, and fat in it is that the food industry has carefully engineered processed foods to be more addictive so people will buy more of it.

      We live in one of the most exploitative societies in the world, and it's only getting worse over time.

    • loeg  2 months ago

      > No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.

      "Fun" isn't the right word, but ~hypochondriacs will get unnecessary care if they perceive it to be free. This adds cost to the system without improving outcomes.

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