COVID-19 & Healthcare

By Michael Bryan

The American healthcare system is not a market at all. And it is certainly not a 'free' market.

This is how Republicans depict the system. It's a lie.

That may be a counter-intuitive statement, given the political discourse around the American healthcare system. But allow me to make the case before you reject this premise.

Any economist will tell you that a free market system for exchange of any good or service requires several basic preconditions in order to work. Some of those prerequisites are: the existence of fungible goods in the market (substitutions are possible which leave the consumer equally well off), pricing information freely available to consumer and providers, freedom by participants (especially buyers) to select the timing of their purchases, and freedom to choose whether to enter the market at all.

None of these preconditions obtain in the American healthcare system.

By Karl Reiner   In 2010, Americans spent $2.6 trillion on health care, a distressing 18% of GDP. The cost in the U.S. was higher per capita than in any other industrialized nation.  Although it leads the world in money spent, a lower percentage of America’s population had medical coverage. The need for health care … Read more

by David Safier Senate candidate Richard Carmona will be the keynote speaker at the Arizona Health Forum Satuday, March 3, 1:30-4:30pm at UA.

by David Safier