A Rare Glimpse at How a Free Market Could Work

Townhall3From Dan Mitchell:

I’ve complained ad nauseam about how government has screwed up the health sector, both because of spending programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and because of tax and regulatory distortions that have mutated the supposedly private insurance market into some bizarre form of pre-paid, all-you-can-eat healthcare.

These policies have created a third-party payer crisis.

There are a few tiny parts of our healthcare system where markets are allowed to operate and consumers are in charge of spending their own money, and in these areas – such as cosmetic surgery, laser eye surgery, and abortion – we find stable prices and rising quality.

But how do we move free market from isolated niches into the mainstream of the healthcare sector?

Well, it’s happening in small ways organically, largely because the current system has become an even bigger mess under Obamacare.

I’ve already cited the case of a North Carolina doctor who decided to use market-based pricing, and I’ve shared a very powerful video from Reason TV about  a hospital in Oklahoma that’s doing the same thing.

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