Socialized healthcare vs for-profit healthcare

If you prefer a videos explanation, see these three (which I recommend because it’s more convenient to listen to them & they articulate things better than I do). If you prefer to read, continue.

The number one problem with healthcare in the United States of America is how expensive it is. The reason why its so expensive is because it is so heavily regulated.

In 1965, the single-payer health insurance programs, Medicare & Medicaid made poor people less dependent on private charities & more dependent on political institutions & pharmaceutical companies. The healthcare industry gets money from said programs, which makes things more expensive because they can charge almost as much as they want.

That same year, the government also took over the training of new doctors, & as of 1997, the number of available spots for training is limited at 110,000 per year, & it has not increased since. Even doctors from developed Western countries are required to go through this training. Plus, the American Medical Association has lobbied Congress & state governments to give its members de-facto monopolies on the licensing of doctors, which is done to limit the number of doctors, which increases the prices charged by doctors.

When it comes to healthcare insurance companies, they face regulations such as not being able to compete across state lines & being required to give coverage for things that their customers don’t need, like maternity care coverage for men, infertility coverage for couples who don’t want to conceive children, & alcohol addiction treatment for non-drinkers.

Between mandates, price-controls, & third-party payers such as government, employers, & insurance companies acting as middlemen, no one knows what they’re actually paying for their care, & no one has much of a reason to be concerned.

When it comes to the FDA, it may as well be privatized. There have been many cases where even if a drug has been used in other countries & is proven to be safe, the FDA won’t even let dying patients take it while the FDA tests the drug for efficacy, not even safety.

Compare the FDA to product safety & certification organizations such as Underwriters Laboratories. UL has an excellent track record, getting testing done quickly & accurately. If they don’t, companies would go with UL’s competitors. If a UL certified product hurts you, you can sue UL. The same can’t be said for the FDA, a government agency.

As for the FDA being made beholden to pharmaceutical companies, its already happened. The FDA acts “carefully” to not upset its corporate sponsors, which provides about half of its budget for drug evaluation.

Privatizing the FDA would also save taxpayers 3+ billion dollars.
In a free market, there is an incentive to lower prices & increase the quality of goods & services because doing so would earn one more money & a better reputation, & not doing so would mean that one does not earn money & they get a worse reputation.

With government, the government can just make people pay through taxes, & if there isn’t real competition, government made goods & services turn out to be low quality.
Look at parts of the medical business that aren’t (yet) heavily regulated, such as cosmetic surgery, lasiks & retail clinics. For the first two, prices aren’t raising exorbitantly (they’re actually falling) as that the patient pays directly, which is seen when a breast job, a cosmetic surgery, costs say, around two-thousand dollars compared to, say, an appendectomy which costs tens of thousands. And retail clinics, because they provide care that does not require a doctor or full-fledged doctor’s office or hospital but does so at much lower prices. The American Medical Association doesn’t like this, & wants to have more control over those parts of the medical business.

We see the same thing about technology. When defibrillators were deregulated, they became less expensive, more advanced, & overall better. Same with smartphones (which are even in reasonable reach of many poor people), & so on & so forth. Even if lifting price caps means that equipment will become more expensive, this is only in the short term, as that in the long term, prices will go down.
Videos that I got my points from:
Health Care is a Mess... But Why?

What If Health Clinics Were More Like Retail Stores?

Govt Should Do Less

Recommended:
John Stossel - Free Market or Government Medicine: What Will Be The New Way? 4/25/13

As for Universal Health Care, what happens with it is that we often end up long lines, rationing, &/or cost-cutting measures, including paying doctors less, turning sheets over to cut costs & letting people starve to death because there is a lack of beds. We see this a lot in Canada & the United Kingdom. Government officials also tend to exempt themselves from the restrictions of UHC. This is articulated at 7:50 in the video "How To Argue For Universal Health Care", which is the 3rd one here, plus the one below.

As for people being turned away because they can’t afford healthcare, that’s not what actually happens (it would already be less likely if healthcare was more affordable). Private charities can still provide for them, & perhaps do so even better than government.

The Wonderful Life of Private Charity

Healthcare is not a right as in you have the right to receive it. Rights exist in a negative context. What you’re thinking of is an entitlement.
The truth about healthcare exposed ] Socialized healthcare vs free market healthcare - YouTube