Sunday, July 24, 2016

We Pay More Here for Healthcare Because Money Rules Here to a Much Greater Degree


The Vox article linked below says a lot about what happens when the so called "Free Market" makes most of the decisions on what healthcare should cost in this country. And even as we pay more the outcomes one can expect here don't come anywhere near to justifying the outrageous prices (see here, here, and here).

But what can you expect when "Big Money" can game the tax code with "Inversion" strategies so that not only can they avoid paying taxes to a much greater degree, they can avoid the antitrust laws that would prevent ever more powerful companies from getting even bigger (as in the Pfizer/Allergan drug company merger).

And try as you might to reform tax law, or enforce antitrust legislation, "Big Money" always finds a way to get around, over, or just bull through such efforts over time. After all, they can afford to be patient, just as they can afford to keep many more employed fighting for their interests than the public sector can (why else would you always argue for smaller government even as you starve it with ever less taxation).

At some point, it seems to me, the rest of us are going to have to give serious consideration to the argument that a cost based economic operating model is just no longer viable. Not only because it puts too much power into the hands of too few players, or that it is actually obsolete, but because it really is toxic in so many ways to our health, as well as the health of the planet.

Think about it. Start talking to other people about it. Get them to do the same thing. It won't change otherwise.


America’s health care prices are out of control. These 11 charts prove it.


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