Comment Re:Pricing ? (Score 2) 158
So how do you explain the US spending almost twice the amount per capita on health care costs compared to other countries?
According to your logic, al that opportunity for shopping around should mean you pay less on aggregate. So either Americans are too stupid to shop around, or your thesis that a free market in hospital services is more efficient is bunk.
Empirically, central pricing for hospital services, either through government backed insurance or compulsory private insurance, is more efficient and costs citizens less. Note that #2 in health care spending, Switzerland, has a free market in private insurance (having insurance is compulsory, but you can shop around among multiple private providers), with only a government-mandated minimum insurance level. And it still manages to only burden citizens slightly more than half of what the US does.