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To: Pres Raygun

Your recommendations are part way there.

Unfortunately you leave in place the unregulated monopolies that really drive health care costs — the physicians, who constitute a monopoly-guild which constricts the supply of members artificially, suppress effective competition as “unethical” (just as lawyers and trade-unions do), inveigle state legislatures to ban competition from allied health professionals (e.g. nurse midwives, psychologists), and pharmaceutical and medical device companies which sell their products under explicitly granted monopolies called “patents”.

When the government grants a monopoly for a product which has inelastic demand (like life-saving drugs or medical devices), or creates a guild-monopoly by so regulating a profession that there is no effective competition (even when done in the interest of public health or safety), there is no free market, and the government ought, as is done in the case of utilities, regulate the monopolists rates and fees in the public interest.


42 posted on 04/22/2014 11:26:11 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: The_Reader_David
First of all thank you.

To comment on your reply, I may be misunderstanding your point, but the monopolies you referenced are not created because they are unregulated, but are created because of regulation. Regulation always creates some degree of monopolies, whereas deregulation promotes competition. I would like to see a push for more drugs moved from requiring prescriptions to over the counter status and I would like to see the number and type of professionals that can prescribe drugs expanded, such as nurse practitioners and even nurses for some drugs. I do believe there is some role for government licensing of professionals such as doctors, nurse and civil engineers where public safety is involved. Determining the optimal amount of regulation is always difficult and controversial, but necessary.

Although the supply of doctors is restricted by licensing, doctors’ pay plays a minor role in overall health care costs. The main reasons health-care costs are so high are, 1) the high and unnecessary cost of the insurance bureaucracy for routine care, 2) freeloaders who don't pay for their health-care (the uninsured many who are illegals), 3) unjust malpractice suits, 4) misallocation of resources due to market distortions caused by third party payers (primarily government and insurance companies) and 5) unnecessary regulation, mostly of hospitals and medical device manufacturing.

Patents are actually a constitutional right, although one every engineer has to sign away as a condition of employment. Patents do promote investment in research and development by the private sector. Without patent rights, new drug development would cease unless funded by the government or possibly charities. Effective and safe pharmaceuticals are extremely difficult to invent, but in most cases relatively easy to manufacture. Without the monopoly provided by drug patents, the development of new drugs would be a losing proposition.

55 posted on 04/22/2014 4:50:22 PM PDT by Pres Raygun (Repent America)
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