Health care is unique compared to other sectors of the economy. In typical consumer markets prices are transparent and suppliers compete for the patronage of consumers by competing on price, quality, service, and other amenities. In health care prices are opaque and providers do not compete for patients in the traditional sense. In health care there is not one price but many prices, a different price for each payer.
Category: Doctors & Hospitals
Monday Links
- How we benefited from the 2017 (Trump) tax cuts.
- Two (pandemic-related) doomsday predictions that never happened: a child care crisis and women leaving the labor force because of lack of child care and paternity leave.
- Another (Covid-related) doomsday prediction that never happened: one-in-ten- Americans are at risk of being evicted.
- Raw milk is dangerous; so why are sales surging?
- Kamala explains inflation: “Because of the Inflation Reduction Act … we are dropping trillions of dollars on the streets of America right now.”
- When donating blood is better than a payday loan.
Saturday Links
- Drug overdose deaths fell for the first time in five years.
- Seven reasons the country will become more conservative over the next ten years.
- Not enough babies: the entire world has fallen below the replacement rate.
- A solution to the doctor shortage: expand the use of physician’s assistants.
- MaskZero is the only product in the world that can kill covid-19 varmints and protect the wearer against other viruses. Kotlikoff interviews the inventor.
- New York Post: Fauci lied.
Is Private Equity Bad for Health Care?
Sen. Markey is particularly angry about Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy filing. An investment firm owns 31 Seward hospitals, many of which are in Massachusetts. The perverse incentives in health care are the primary problem. However, that is not something Sen. Markey proposes to address in his Health Over Wealth Act.