Why an Open Market Won’t Repair American Health Care
▻https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/books/review/an-american-sickness-elisabeth-rosenthal.html
As Rosenthal describes American health care, it’s not really a market; it’s more like a protection #racket — tolerated only because so many different institutions are chipping in to cover the extortionary bill and because, ultimately, it’s our lives that are on the line.
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Where Rosenthal’s account falls short is in explaining why this deeply broken system persists. [...]
The difference between the United States and other countries isn’t the role of insurance; it’s the role of government. More specifically, it’s the way in which those who benefit from America’s dysfunctional market have mobilized to use government to protect their earnings and #profits. In every country where people have access to sophisticated medical care, they must rely heavily on the clinical expertise of providers and the financial protections of insurance, which, in turn, creates the opportunity for runaway costs. But in every other rich country, the government not only provides coverage to all citizens; it also provides strong counterpressure to those who seek to use their inherent market power to raise prices or deliver lucrative but unnecessary services — typically in the form of hard limits on how much health care providers can charge.
#Etats-Unis #couverture #santé #complicité #Etat #lobbies #lobbying