Re: What is the root cause of the rising cost of health care ?

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:21:46 -0500, "Peter Olcott"
<NoSpam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<royls@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46d0b4b3.1017297@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:33:48 -0500, "Peter Olcott"
<NoSpam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Why is the price of health care rising much faster than
the
price of other goods and services?

Government-created and -enforced monopolies that shovel
inconceivably
large quantitites of unearned wealth into the pockets of
the rich.

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that demand is
unconstrained by increases in price?

No, it couldn't, because the price elasticity of demand for medical
care is so low: people want the care they need, but no more. When was
the last time you went to the hospital for a little recreational knee
surgery, or a REALLY extreme makeover, like a liver transplant?

If you were interested in understanding anything about the economics
of health care, which you obviously are not, you would be willing to
know the fact that countries that provide medical care to their
citizens FOR FREE spend far less (in some cases little more than HALF
as much) on it per capita than the USA, where demand is "constrained"
by the resistance of insurance companies and HMOs to paying the
"market" price.

-- Roy L
.

Relevant Pages