The problem is government (as I will attempt to explain), so the solution can not be more government.
Healthcare started to go very wrong in this country when the government stepped in [1].
Because of tax laws, it became more economical for employers to provide healthcare insurance. This has all sorts of consequences.
1) I don’t pay the premiums, so it doesn’t matter how often I go to the doctor. It is essentially free to me.
2) I’m not price sensitive about the service the insurance pays for and I’m not price sensitive for the premiums paid by my employer.
3) Having customers who are not price sensitive reduces incentives to lower prices.
Then there are the government regulations that limit the supply of healthcare services[2].
Then there’s out out of control sue-happy society who are encouraged to sue everyone if they don’t like their outcome[3]. We need tort reform.
The problem with Europe is that you guys don’t seem to understand the difference in scale, culture, and demographics between our situations.
You guys have small nations with homogeneous cultures. So, you’ll have to excuse us for not taking your advice.
The closest you’ve come to rivaling the US government is the EU and look how well that’s going. It’s a hard problem and we’re actually doing pretty good.
Do you go to the doctor when you don't need to? Going to the doctor is essentially free to me as well and I haven't gone in years.
Elasticity of demand goes both ways.
States like mine (Texas) have instituted tort reform. What happened? Insurance prices stayed the same and the insurance companies pocketed the difference. Also, hospitals had far less incentive to self-police their employees so we ended up with a lot of bad doctors and surgeons blithely continuing their malpractice.
As for scale: cost-sharing scales phenomenally well. Larger scale is an argument for national healthcare in the US.
I've never understood the perceived mechanism between the 'culture and demographics' argument.
To be clear, I’m talking about the cost/benefit. If the cost is $0, then that equation is out of balance. There are literally people going to the ER for a stomach ache. I’m only going off of personal experience here.
You made a few interesting assertions about TX without references. Could you please site statistics for the increase of malpractice since tort reform went in place?
Looking for myself, I only found articles refuting your assertion about insurance premiums [1].
"...find no evidence of reduced spending in Texas post-reform, and some evidence that physician spending rose in Texas relative to control states. In sum, we find no evidence that Texas’s tort reforms bent the cost curve downward."
"...our conclusion is that reforming the malpractice environment has largely insignificant economic implications for health insurance markets."
So, I mispoke. Claims went down 75%. Malpractice premiums went down 50%. Yet, overall, medical costs to insurance companies and consumers rose at the same rate as everyone else.
You have expertly found a flaw in my offhand comment.
But the point, that much lauded tort reform doesn't do much, if anything, to help consumers (and, in fact, could hurt them) in the healthcare space, stands.
If you step back from pedantry and consider ideas rather than pick apart the flaws in the imperfect words used to express ideas, you might find that the world becomes a more interesting place.
The problem is government (as I will attempt to explain), so the solution can not be more government.
Healthcare started to go very wrong in this country when the government stepped in [1].
Because of tax laws, it became more economical for employers to provide healthcare insurance. This has all sorts of consequences.
1) I don’t pay the premiums, so it doesn’t matter how often I go to the doctor. It is essentially free to me.
2) I’m not price sensitive about the service the insurance pays for and I’m not price sensitive for the premiums paid by my employer.
3) Having customers who are not price sensitive reduces incentives to lower prices.
Then there are the government regulations that limit the supply of healthcare services[2].
Then there’s out out of control sue-happy society who are encouraged to sue everyone if they don’t like their outcome[3]. We need tort reform.
The problem with Europe is that you guys don’t seem to understand the difference in scale, culture, and demographics between our situations.
You guys have small nations with homogeneous cultures. So, you’ll have to excuse us for not taking your advice.
The closest you’ve come to rivaling the US government is the EU and look how well that’s going. It’s a hard problem and we’re actually doing pretty good.
1- http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/09/understandin...
2- https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?ar...
3- https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2010/09/07/the-true-c...