The Enemy is Us on Health Policy
another old essay of mine
In 2017, I wrote,
Americans, and especially health care providers, do not want to think of health care as a commodity. The providers want to be paid, but they do not want to think of themselves as selling their services, so the payment comes from third parties and the price is hidden to consumers.
We appreciate “the gift of health care,” so that we don’t have to think about alternative uses of resources. The essay lists five other inclinations that we have which help explain how our health care system has the characteristics it does.
Pretty accurate, unfortunately. Also, "insurance should pay for everything".
The last time I looked, maybe 4-5 years ago, somethin like 80% of the "health care" money was spent in the last year of someone's life. No one seems to think that extending a life by a few weeks or months isn't worth heroic effort AND heroic spending.