“You mean to tell me that an aspirin actually costs LESS than $38.
Wow! - Who knew?”
Inflated prices are not peculiar to the healthcare industry. When was the last time you went to buy a new car, and have to barter for the price you pay for it? Same gig. How about prices at the gas stations, and the markups all the way up and down the food chain. Keep complaining, but it’s systemic to societies throughout the world, not just here. Obviously is part of human nature to try to get the most money as possible, even if not always fair. If you want total fairness, then look to space aliens for relief because it hasn’t worked down here on earth since the Stone Age.
Look for workarounds whenever possible, rat out corruption when you find it, but don’t expect miracles. You are fighting human nature here.
It was a scandal years ago when people found out that Defense contractors were charging $500 for hammers or toilet seats.
Of course, everyone knew that the cost wasn’t real, put the companies were trying to make a profit, and so the accounting folks charged high prices for simple things like toilet seats.
Laws were put in place, and Defense contractors can’t do things that way anymore. But, of course, they still find ways to make large profits. A bit more subtle. Not so outrageous. But we are not saving any money on Defense contracts because hammers no longer cost $500. In fact, it is quite likely that we are now paying two guys $80,000 a year to monitor all expenditures related to hammers. Meanwhile the companies are managing to squeeze out profits that are even larger, through more creative accounting.
Healthcare is the same game. What bothers me is that the Do-Gooders see Defense and are outraged at the waste and demand that something be done. But they look at healthcare, and $38 aspirin, and they shrug and say “We need to care for poor people”. What it really is (as always) is political activism: “I hate the military / I love a dependent people who only survive by being slaves to government”.
The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.