*promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 2:02pm PDT - promote requested by original submitter Grimm.

You take out the free market and this happens. Duh.

Get government and 3rd party payment out of the game and let capitalism do its thing.

As many people as possible should start flying out of the country for treatments.

Except they already discussed why conventional model for capitalism fails when it comes to health care. You can't exactly shop around for the best price when you're in the middle of a heart attack.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by eric3579.

I'd love to watch this. Blocked in Canada?

I can not verify because the content won't load for me here in the US, but this might be what you are looking for:

Canada - Daily Show episode
Canada - Daily Show extended interview

This needs to be #1. Don't let me down, VideoSift

I'm going with the wild assumption that you either didn't actually watch it, or you don't agree that a person has the ability to shop around for life saving care after being struck by someone else's car, knocked unconscious and taken to whatever the local hospital is.

Or you think a person who doesn't need emergency care can spend all their free time during normal working hours going from doctor to doctor and having exams which they have to pay for to find out which one can do their procedure the cheapest? Maybe we need an online shopping tool like Surgeria.com or CheapDoctors.com where we can just compare prices on open heart surgeries and then fly to a different state, pay hotels etc.

(And for the record, the idea of free-market life-saving care is about as ridiculous a concept as anything anyone can ever think of. The BASICS of capitalism is if you have a product or service that's in demand, has limited supply, you charge as much as you can. Which means, only the rich can afford quality health care. Because that's exactly what will happen, as per history.)

Your right, you always pay more for goods and services when its needed.

But capitalism will drive down costs across the board and that heart attack will cost way less then under the current system

Yes I watched all 3 parts. Great interview.

Sure, some times we pay more for convenience and also when we have to have something NOW and can't shop around. We all get fuck once in a while. But all of us get fucked every time we seek medical attention.

Free markets work the best.
Once capitalism takes hold word will get out as to which hospital / facility has good pricing for the service provided. Just like everything else.

Like everything else word of mouth, ratings, and competition will cause prices to come inline with reality.

The 150$ aspirin will be down to 2-3 bucks.



You are a capitalistic with every dollar you spend. Who ever provides the best goods and services for your dollar gets your dollar.

You say only the rich can afford quality healthcare. Under todays government controlled 3rd party system your are right.

It's curious how opponents of "free market capitalism" lend so much of their imagination conjuring twisted fantasies of its cruelty, yet spare none of it for all the likely productive solutions that would thrive in such an unrestrained collaborative environment.

Freedom is so scary...

You have no idea how scary freedom is boy. Who's going to stop me from slicing you up and using you as fertilizer? I'll take your head and feet as trophies and use the rest of you as sausage for my dogs.

Oh... I see, you'll ask a government to do that for ya, will ya? Good luck with that. You might not get caught in my traps, so long as that government is interested in you, which it's not. Com'on down my way son... we'll show ya what gummin't is all about.

It sure seems to me that currently, unfettered "capitalism" is in full swing in the health care industry and what the administration of health care facilities truly fear and lobby so furiously against is the standardization of health care costs based on real world supply and demand, not prices conjured out of thin air from some mysterious Chargemaster grimoire.

The health care industry has no incentive to change the current model. Why would they? Could a CEO or executive board of a hospital get traction for disrupting the current status quo when it is so obscenely profitable? I think the answer is obvious that there will be no systemic changes from within the health care industry which leaves just one possible source for market correction: government regulation.

Leaving aside the argument about whether Medicare is more efficiently administered than private health care and actually costs far less money (it is), don't you think it would be a good thing to have a watch dog organization whose sole purpose is to analyze the "Chargemaster" and make the health care industry actually accountable to the free market?

It sure seems like "Chargemaster" is just a new word for that time tested practice of free marketeers since the Boss Tweed days: price fixing. Anti-trust law actually helps create a true free market and we are in desperate, desperate need of it in the medical industry.

@Rufus so, freedom, to you, is synonymous with pervasive violence? Is that what you were told as a small child?

Hey, if only government just protected our lives and property, I'd be very happy about it. You do realize that's roughly why libertarians often talk about a limited government, right?

Too bad it isn't limited at all, far from it. It uses violence a lot more than it should, in ways you don't know about or haven't carefully considered. Probably both. Hell, it even scared you into fearing freedom.

@petpeeved so you're saying government price fixing by bureaucrats is the solution, because they're better judges of "real world supply and demand" than the collective judgements of millions of people trading vigorously every day? Wow, if only it was you running the centrally planned economy of Soviet Russia, I bet we could have stopped its apparently avoidable collapse.

You think the health and healthcare industry is "unfettered capitalism"? That's so delusional I don't know where to start. It's one of the most regulated industries in America. That's government intervention for you. Why do you think there's so much disgusting lobbying for special interests? Because government is everywhere, you can't move an inch without greasing the hand of a dirty bureaucrat.

Get government out of healthcare, and there will be no laws to protect the crooked big businesses. Let the industry compete with higher quality and lower prices, like any business tends to do in less regulated environments.

"Get government out of healthcare" ... yea fuck tricare

briefly: it takes a handful of full time employees JUST to call and get insurance approval and do billing for a busy medical office like an eye surgeon.. that money could be better spent, thats basically cutting overhead that should occur, and now on to mention the taboo, profits made by insurance companies.. ya know, the guy in between you and your doctor?

yea F the govt that is extending health care benefits for people under their parents plans, i want Mr. X to die before i have to pay out my profit!

u see why u scum... yea...

@vaire2ube and who do you think sticks an insurance company between you and your doctor? It shouldn't be that way!

If the market were allowed to push prices down, people would resort less to insurance and pay for medical services through other means. You can thank the collusion of government and big business for keeping prices high and making health insurance such a big part of healthcare. Now it's even mandatory. They're forcing you to pay for their costly shitty services.

Don't think government has your best interests at heart when they "extend health care benefits" or whatnot, it's just more meddling engendered to stifle the market, to keep competition out, and help big business with whatever makes them more money.

So, you're blaming BIG BUSINESS. I'm blaming BIG BUSINESS + GOVERNMENT. You can't get rid of big businesses, you shouldn't. You can, however, relieve their unfair entrenchment in the market, by getting GOVERNMENT out of the equation.

OK WELL... GOVERNMENT IS PEOPLE AND PEOPLE ARE THE PROBLEM SO I AGREE... that doesnt mean we cant be the solution.. in fact, it means we have to be.

I'm always amazed how some people seem to treat the term "free market" as if it's some magical mantra, and that by just chanting it often enough it will somehow fix everything.
What if the market were allowed to push prices down? If there are enough big corporate interests involved what makes you think they won't collude to keep prices high, who's going to step in and offer cheaper services when business is all about making as much profit as possible?
Is the current government system corrupt and flawed? Hell yes, but that just means we need to fix the system so special interests can't just buy influence with truckloads of money. The special interests meanwhile want to end government influence simply because it's one less person they have to bribe once they are gone. The idea that everything will be unicorns and rainbows once the government is out of the picture is just a fallacy perpetuated by those who simply want to do away with annoying rules that prevent them from doing whatever the hell they please, or at least make it easier and cheaper.

@00Scud00 if businesses collude to keep prices high, their enemy are other businesses not profiting from that collusion. Getting into the fold cuts into their profits.

Big businesses use government to regulate the market and skew costs in their favor, raising barriers of entry to competitors.

If government is removed from the picture, yes, it's one less person to bribe. It also removes all those barriers, and all unfair advantages big businesses currently enjoy.

With free markets, as with most freedoms, it's not all unicorns and rainbows, quite the opposite. There will be plenty of abuse and unfairness to go around. However, being free from a mountain of laws and bureaucracy, without anyone to come crying to, begging authority to right all wrongs, society will be more flexible, creative, responsible, and inclined to solve problems on its own. People are better at solving problems than bureaucrats, and they'll more likely do so if they have to do it themselves.

It's like the internet. I believe most problems on the internet today can be solved technologically. Is that magical thinking? I don't think so.

Sure, there's a role for a few legal rules, but they should always be kept to a minimum. Let people figure things out creatively, without resorting to violence. Add too many laws to the internet, and it'll be bogged down. People will try less to come up with creative solutions, and resort more to petitioning their representatives.

I resent the insinuation that I use free market as a mantra. I'm trying to clear its name. It currently enjoys a terrible and undeserved reputation.