It's hilarious to me that everyone thinks that profit as a driving motive, is a bad idea.
Profit causes more efficient, and more customer (i.e. market) driven services.
Without profit as a motive, you end up with things like the DMV, where nobody could care less about efficiency or customer service. In fact, that is how government, with no profit motive, works in general. There is actually an incentive to be LESS efficient, because if you can show cause that you need a bigger budget next year, you get it.
One of the problems with the health care system in the US, is that with health insurance, the customer NEVER looks at the actual bill to see if they are getting a good deal, it just gets passed to the insurance company and thats the end of it.
Look at the one sector that is TRULY market driven. Plastic surgery. Insurance does not cover it, so the free market takes control. People are looking for the best surgery for the best price. Thus in the last 30 years, cosmetic surgery procedures have DROPPED in price, while the technology and techniques have gotten better. This is the free market in action.
During the same time, prices for insurance covered procedures have shot up.... because the providers know that the customers don't look at the price, they just pass the bill to insurance.
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