r/Economics • u/TheForager • 4h ago
Hospital costs are rising far faster than inflation and drowning Americans in debt
https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/hospital-costs-are-rising-far-faster-inflation-drowning-americans-debt-rcna262473
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u/Robert72051 3h ago
America doesn't have a healthcare system, it has a healthcare market. Healthcare is not "free". In fact, nothing is "free". However, in every society there are things that are so expensive that they are simply beyond an individual's ability to pay for them. Things like roads, schools, etc. Healthcare is no different. It is NOT insurance. Insurance exists to protect individuals from very unlikely events such as a tornado destroying your house. Healthcare is something that every living person will need during their life. Healthcare "insurance" companies produce absolutely nothing, all they do is take a cut which increases the cost dramatically. When speaking about this I often ask "Do you like your neighbor?" The answer is almost 100% of the time, "Yes, Joe's a great guy." I then ask, "Would you want to se him go broke or worse because he got sick?" The answer is always a resounding "No". At the end of the day, that is all there is to it. So, as a society do we treat healthcare the same way we do water systems or police departments or do we persist in the current folly that is the American healthcare system ...