Rick Ungar and I are having a good dialog in the comments on the relative merits of free market versus governmental solutions to America's health care challenges.
As Congress sleeps health insurance profits skyrocket –coverage plummets - Rick Ungar - The Policy Page - True/Slant
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Thanks for your comment, HIM.
I agree that medical costs are the driver behind increased insurance premiums.
However, we disagree on the reasons behind the rise in medical costs. I attribute a large amount of it to the loss of a direct financial link between the provider and the consumer. Absent such a link, the consumer has the illusion of a lower-cost, less-scarce resource than is actually the case, and therefore, tends to overconsume, leading to cost increases as a form of rationing.
In other arenas, innovation and competition generally tend to drive availability and quality up while driving costs down. Look at computers, for example.
In medical care, at least in the U.S., one reason this does not occur so much is due to government over-regulation of the industry.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), for example, drives delayed introduction of innovative new products and drives up the costs of those which are eventually introduced.
http://mises.org/story/1805
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