Saddens me to think about, but imagine if American healthcare and innovation was nearly as "free market" as smart phones, LLMs, etc.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_health_expendit...
> Saddens me to think about, but imagine if American healthcare and innovation was nearly as "free market" as smart phones, LLMs, etc.
That sounds horrid.
Cheaper, universally accessible, and same outcomes seems more efficient, yes?
That said: https://cepr.net/publications/can-we-just-admit-were-wasting...
> Traditional Medicare has significantly lower administrative costs than private insurance with 1.1 percent of spending in 2024 going towards administration compared to between roughly 12-18 percent for private insurers in previous years. Coincidentally, the bloated administrative spending of American health care is one of the factors contributing to why the United States spends around twice as much per person compared to other developed nations even though we have worse health outcomes.
The food system is basically a free market (with some weak safety regulations). The apparent end-state of this free market that America has arrived at is tragic. Sure, people like me are free to select healthy, nutritious food at reasonable prices, but at a population level, 70% are overweight and 30% are obese, with all the risk and disease that comes with that.
This is where free markets (in necessary goods) tend to end up. Perfect for ensuring the concentration of capital, disastrous for the average consumer (and never mind the “externalities“…)