Taryn East Yes, as I've pointed out to you before, the US government...
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Taryn East Yes, as I've pointed out to you before, the US government spends more per capita than all but a few countries with socialist healthcare systems. The US government also meddles in every aspect of the medical market. So when you compare the US system to socialist healthcare systems in the UK, Canada, Norway, etc, you're _not_ comparing free market healthcare to socialist healthcare, you're comparing one crappy, mostly socialist system with another perhaps somewhat less crappy socialist system. For example, many states have Certificate of Need laws. That means that if you want to build a new medical facility with an MRI machine, the government has to certify that the community "needs" the new facility. Of course, existing hospitals typically take a dubious view towards new competition for their services. So such permission is typically difficult to get, and requires lengthy, costly lawsuits: https://radiologybusiness.com/topics/healthcare-management/healthcare-policy/raleigh-radiology-bests-unc-battle-over-states-certificate-need-law What do you think happens to wait times, if you can't legally build new MRI facilities to meet the demand? The physician's cartel in the US also got Congress to limit the number of medical schools, cap federal funding for residencies, and cut a quarter of all residency positions. So, from 1980 - 2005, the number of physians in the US remained flat, even as the population grew by ~30% (>60 million) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/why-does-the-us-make-it-so-hard-to-be-a-doctor/622065/ What do you think happens to prices when demand rises by 30%, but supply is legally capped? What do you think happens to wait times? And that's just the tip of the iceberg of pathologies caused by socialist paternalists and their rentseeking allies. Prescription drug laws, FDA regulation, insurance regulations, the DEA, Medicare/Medicaid cause a whole host of other perverse consequences.