"As Congress debates the American Health Care Act, its members should remember the benefits in cost and quality generated by the free market. What Americans need is not another complicated insurance scheme, but a return to health care that patients pay for themselves.
For the past several decades, government intervention has pushed Americans to pay for more of their medical expenses with insurance. The result is that medical costs rose 118 percent from 1992 to 2012.
Costs rise under an insurance system because patients have no incentive to price-shop. As Nobel laureate Vernon Smith explains, in our current system, party A (the service provider) tells party B (the customer) what they should buy. Party C (either the government or an insurance company) then pays for it.
This deprives patients of the incentive to price-compare, because they’re not directly paying for the services that party A recommends. But when consumers are encouraged to factor in cost, prices fall.
In fact, this is exactly what has happened in areas of healthcare not dominated by insurance."
https://mises.org/blog/lower-health-care-costs-try-freedom
For the past several decades, government intervention has pushed Americans to pay for more of their medical expenses with insurance. The result is that medical costs rose 118 percent from 1992 to 2012.
Costs rise under an insurance system because patients have no incentive to price-shop. As Nobel laureate Vernon Smith explains, in our current system, party A (the service provider) tells party B (the customer) what they should buy. Party C (either the government or an insurance company) then pays for it.
This deprives patients of the incentive to price-compare, because they’re not directly paying for the services that party A recommends. But when consumers are encouraged to factor in cost, prices fall.
In fact, this is exactly what has happened in areas of healthcare not dominated by insurance."
https://mises.org/blog/lower-health-care-costs-try-freedom