gavinfielder
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2012
- Messages
- 1,748
- Reaction score
- 756
- Location
- Sacramento, CA, USA
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian - Left
This video claims that the primary reason for rising healthcare costs in the US is inelastic demand. He goes through it and gives quite a few justifications, but I don't think he really connected the dots. Sure, demand for healthcare is inelastic, but you still have competing providers, so in a functional market, you shouldn't have companies able to charge extreme prices without cutting out their consumer base.
I claim that markets generally stop functioning under two conditions. A lack of choices, or a lack of information. If you agree, which would it be in the case of healthcare and why? Or is it something else entirely?