[rolenthedeep]

"the market" is why we're in this situation. The healthcare cost crisis is simply not a problem that capitalism has any mechanism to address.

Capitalism balances supply and demand by modulating prices. When demand is above supply, prices go up until demand drops. When supply is higher than demand, prices go down to bring demand up. But demand for healthcare can't go down. There is no force opposing price increases, so prices must tend toward infinity.

When it comes to life-or-death situations, people will pay just about anything. The market will bear almost any price, and the entire operating principle of capitalism is to increase prices to the limit the market will bear.

There just is no mechanism by which capitalism can consider the value of human life. Otherwise we wouldn't have to write laws to prevent children being maimed in factories, or prevent people selling snake oil as a miracle cure, or create entities like the EPA to prevent companies poisoning entire towns. The only solution is for the government to intervene and cap prices.

The only reason you'd ever lower prices for healthcare is because it's the morally right thing to do. Capitalism does not recognize the concept of morality. There is no internal force which could lower prices, so it must be an external force.

[jtbayly]

I guess I can kind of understand why you think demand "can't go down." But I have no idea why you ignore the possibility of supply increasing.