re: #8 Chrysicat
More specifically, genius was mainly so far on the āskin in the game! If people had to pay cash for their prescriptions, but those prescriptions were manufactured by many different companies, the market would drive prices to āsaneā points.ā But that always leads to āERs should have posted prices and you should drive until you qualifyā and āUS medicine is overpriced because there arenāt enough providers active, and we need to kill the gatekeeper systemā.
And none of that makes much sense.
Drugs are patented. They arenāt going to be manufactured by āmany different companiesā unless you get rid of patents.
Drive around checking ER prices? Wonderful. The nearest ER to me is sixteen miles away. The next two nearest ERās are sixty miles away (one south, one west). Beyond that, the next nearest ER is a hundred miles away.
If I have an emergency (thatās part of the name ER), Iām not going to be driving around in a three hundred mile circle looking for the best prices (even if an ER could put up a price list like McDonalds).
If youāre in an accident, they take you to the nearest hospital, not the cheapest hospital.
There are not enough providers active because it costs a metric fuquetonne of money to open a hospital. Even in huge cities like Chicago or Dallas someoneās not going to come along and plunk āJoeās Cut-Rate Hospital Service! We guarantee to beat the competition!ā in town.
Thatās neither how business nor hospitals work.
Libertarians really donāt understand things like business and profit, do they?