[ExI] More on US Health Care Costs

[Dan]

--- On Fri, 5/22/09, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/5/22 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:
>> Aside from the monopolies, though, the whole system is
>> highly regulated and the government pumps money into it.
>> These two other factors drive up prices.  And the
>> solution should be: remove the monopolies, the regulations,
>> and the subsidies.*  Instead, it looks like the solution
>> the elites want is: increase monopolization, increase
>> regulation, and increase the subsidies.
> 
> But just about every other health system in the world has
> greater government control and funding than that in the US.
> Shouldn't that
> make them even less efficient? Or are you arguing that the
> efficiency
> vs. government control curve has a minimum and then slopes
> upward
> again as government control increases?

There are in economics no constants of proportionality.  Thus, one can't say exactly what the level of price increase or other measures would be under a given regulation or intervention.  At best, one might look at history and try to adjust for other factors to try to get a rough estimate, but this will be limited to the short run.

That said, though, the US government spends more per capita on healthcare than Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.  So the US government's level of funding is at least higher than these countries -- and they are usually touted by supporters of increasing the US government's footprint in healthcare.

Regards,

Dan