Can the US adopt a comprehensive, market-oriented healthcare agenda?

This is a good opinion piece - though I not so sure ObamaCare or the Ryan plan were modeled after what the Swiss do - on way out of this ObamaCare mess.

While most Americans view their healthcare system as “free-market,” Switzerland actually has the most market-oriented healthcare system in the West. It translates into universal coverage and low entitlement costs. Swiss government entities spent about 3.5 percent of gross domestic product on healthcare in 2010, compared to 8.5 percent in the United States. That’s a difference of more than $5 trillion over 10 years: real money, especially relative to our $16 trillion debt.

There is no “public option” in Switzerland. Instead, citizens qualify for means-tested, sliding-scale subsidies and choose among a variety of regulated, private-sector insurance products. The Swiss have the freedom to choose their own doctors, as Americans do, and access to the latest medical technologies. They also have short waiting times for appointments.

https://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/02/20/the-future-of-free-market-healthcare/

=====================

We are going to have to do something because about 10 million people are likey to lose their employer sponsored health insurance and 15 percent of current providers may stop taking Medicare patients at all due to ObamaCare.

Those 30 years have followed the path of processed food consumption, obesity, diabetes, and the plopping of assses in front of TV's and computers for extended periods.

Healthy eating and moderate exercise will rid the need for 'healthcare', which is the biggest oxymoron in today's lingo.  The medical profession does not provide care, rather it provides the path to addiction for prescription drugs and needless operations.  

Overall government spending on entitlement programs increased at a 4.8 annual rate in the 40 years between 1972 and 2011, net of inflation. Health care spending increased at 5.7 percent per year (and federal government spending on health care increased at a 6.7 percent pace). In contrast, the gross domestic product grew at a rate of 2.7 percent over this period

 The federal government now spends more on health care than national defense and international security assistance.

Over the last 30 years health care has become steadily more regulated at all levels of government and in the private sector, too. The reach of regulation in the health care system has grown steadily larger and that is not an example of “the market”

Quote Originally Posted by 14daroad:

The market has done no such thing.

The government has been the source of failure.

McCarran–Ferguson Act

For decades, healthcare costs have been rising for all countries.  Those that have succeeded in limiting inflation have MORE government intervention and not less.

Examples.  More emphasis on primary care outside of expensive hospitals.  More cheap generic drugs prescribed.  Tight regulation of costs such as lawsuits.  Less use of unnecessary procedures.

Doctors have killed many more than they have saved.

And just compare 1960's health care costs to today--THEN you'll know.