Some people thought it was a good idea to cap [administration cost + profit] of health insurance companies as a percentage of premiums. As a result, health insurance administrators have two ways to increase their compensation: they can compete to acquire more customers, or they can artificially inflate costs per customer. Guess which one is easier! Now you don't have to wonder why medication is half the cost when you buy it without insurance...

Love to hear all the time how the "free market" is ruining healthcare. Of course everyone knows a "free market" is when you have profit caps, supply restrictions (residency cap), government-run marketplaces, byzantine tax subsidies tying insurance to employment for no reason, etc etc

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Avicebron 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If anyone is curious, this the USA, it came from the ACA in 2010 championed by Democrats. It's almost like it doesn't matter which jersey is being worn.

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api 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's what I meant. It's over-regulated and sclerotic, criticisms often levied at socialized medicine, but is also unequal, expensive, and excludes many people. So it's like everything that sucks about socialized medicine without the upside.

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Eisenstein an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Love to hear all the time how the "free market" is ruining healthcare. Of course everyone knows a "free market" is when you have profit caps, supply restrictions (residency cap), government-run marketplaces, byzantine tax subsidies tying insurance to employment for no reason, etc etc

What people are talking about with regard to health insurance being ruined by being market based is that the profit motive should not be applied to it. The basic fact is that it should be some form public service and not reliant on a system which has as its incentive maximizing profits, and attempting to regulate it into being patient first and not profit first will always have side-effects like you pointed out.

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modeless an hour ago | parent [-]

Removing the "evil" profit motive has always been an argument for socialism. If it would work for healthcare, why not everything?

	▲	api 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Steel man counter-argument: health care is weird and different and special in lots of ways. The people who need it most are often the least profitable to treat and the least able to pay for it. That's because being sick negatively impacts your earning potential. The sicker you are the less you can afford a way to pay for treatment to not be sick. It's analogous to the problem with debtors' prison. Obscure or low-survival-rate conditions are almost by definition unprofitable to treat. Rare condition? Stage four cancer? It's most profitable to let you suffer or die. There's not enough of a market for the former and the latter has a low probability of leaving someone behind to pay the bill. Old age care can't be profitably offered on insurance or credit. Old? Cash or die in the street. Demand is not infinite because (excluding certain neuroses) people generally do not want health care. They only get it when they need it. Demand does not skyrocket with reduced price or free availability, so the system doesn't automatically just drown in demand when you take the cost away. Competition is sparse because talent is scarce and the cost means there tend to be only one or a few hospitals covering an area. Specialty services and general practitioners are different, but for advanced and expensive care it tends to be not quite a natural monopoly but almost one. It's like how there's not very many space launch companies. Because it's so f'ing hard the supply of competitors is small. Lastly, it needs to be heavily regulated in some ways because medicine might be the most pathological case of a market where customers are unqualified to make buying decisions. The vast majority of people don't understand medicine at all, and getting it wrong can be harmful or fatal so there's no opportunity to "try before you buy" or comparison shop. Nobody tries a surgery to see if it works. It's not like you can toss it or return it if it fails, and you might not be able to leave a review cause you're dead.

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qotgalaxy 29 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

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