We hear continuously that "healthcare" is expensive in the US. We then hear about greedy corporations and other leftist targets. My personal experience identifies two very significant targets that are not mentioned among those leftist tropes.
One is lawsuits such as malpractice brought by attorneys who seem to be far greedier than corporations. In the early 1990s, my first ex wife was emerging from medical school and at that time hoped for a residency in OB/Gyn which had been her motivation for training to be a physician in the first place. At that time, we learned that the annual malpractice insurance premium for that specialty was on the order of $200,000. This, given a 2080 hour work year, amounted to roughly $100 per hour simply for mandatory insurance. If that cost has tracked with general inflation, the premium should be over $200 per hour now. This is before the doctor in a private practice pays for rent, utilities, equipment, assistants and other general office expenses. If I were responsible for reducing the cost of "healthcare" this would be my first target.
A second target is the game of setting excessive list (cash) prices which may then be deeply discounted (better than 90% as I have seen) by Medicare and, to a lesser extent, by insurance companies. I've been a cash customer and know well how absurd the pricing I, as a cash customer, must pay in order for the Government to pretend at heroism by "getting me a discount" (some doctors and institutions have offered me a 15% cash discount, almost insulting given the discounts given to insurance companies, let alone government.) Without these games, the cash price would probably be less than what the government pays, not ten times as much.
Each of these rackets CAN ONLY EXIST because the powers of government were used to make them possible and maintain their viability (try doing anything opposed by ALTA and learn all about political pressure.)
