Unjerked E31 Healthcare Costs Part 2

Unjerked Podcast

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about healthcare costs in the United States. Why does it cost so much? Where exactly does the money go? This is Part 2 of 3 episodes.

We first go over some online arguments and claims related to healthcare. These include claims that the health system is either too free market or not free market enough, the high cost of admin, the theater of hospital cost negotiation, the role immigrants play, the lack of preventative medicine, profit motives, insurance being a scam, and more.

Next we talk about market failures in the healthcare system. These include the steep demand curves due to the critical nature of healthcare, information asymmetry, opaque pricing, the inability to shop for the best service during an emergency scenario, and more. Then we talk about how most vital industries (water, electricity, food, etc) are regulated due to similar market failure risks.

Then, we talk about how high drug prices in the US exist because of the lack of drug price negotiation due to politics. We then discuss pharmacy benefit mangers and the role they play in the drug market. Finally, we discuss the fee for service and pay for value systems, and how the current pay for value system could be leading to unnecessary scans and procedures.

0:40 Online arguments about healthcare

7:25 Initial responses to online arguments

12:09 Market failures

19:25 How other vital industries are regulated

22:08 Drug price negotiations

28:50 Pharmacy Benefit Managers

31:26 Fee for Service vs Pay for Value

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