by A perfect example of how free markets can sometimes explode costs. In Europe the government takes care of the healthcare and can negotiate using highly paid professionals to get the lowest healthcare and medicine charges. Where in America, the land of the free, it's down to individuals to figure this out, and most often, it's too complicated to figure out, or can never be figured out, it just remains expensive.Why not have a team of doctorates and top professions figure it all out instead for you while you just go fishing instead, or dancing, or take a snooze, or whatever, and actually save a bundle at the same time? Now that's freedom! I never have to fill any forms in, or anything, I just turn up and get my treatment. And now I get free prescriptions at the chemist, and as they know me
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Why not have a team of doctorates and top professions figure it all out instead for you while you just go fishing instead, or dancing, or take a snooze, or whatever, and actually save a bundle at the same time? Now that's freedom! I never have to fill any forms in, or anything, I just turn up and get my treatment. And now I get free prescriptions at the chemist, and as they know me I don't have to show any ID and I don't have to sign any forms, I just walk in and walk out with it. Now that's liberty and freedom, Not a worry in the world.
Even more strange, Americans actually pay more tax for their healthcare than people do in other Western countries, which means we pay less tax and get just as much healthcare, while you have to pay for private insurance on top as well. Wow, your private healthcare industry is getting paid double.
Imagine if your company could win the contract to supply all the replacement hips in the UK, well, that's a big contract, so all replacement hip manufactures are going to do their utter best to win that bid, and when they win, the economies of scale will help reduce prices and increase their profits.
So, as you can see, socialist economies can get lower prices and make capitalism more competitive. Libertarians can never beat this.
In which John discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along the way reveals some surprising information, including that Americans spend more of their tax dollars on public health care than people in Canada, the UK, or Australia. Who's at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies? Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple blame game? (Hint: It's that one.) For a much more thorough examination of health care expenses in America, I recommend this series at The Incidental Economist: http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wor... The Commonwealth Fund's Study of Health Care Prices in the US: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/med... Some of the stats in this video also come from this New York Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/hea... This is the first part in what will be a periodic series on health care costs and reforms leading up to the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, in 2014.