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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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I think this is largely a function of government interference in the free market. Between Medicare, medicaid, VA, local, state, and federal employees most health care is already paid for by the government. What isn't directly paid for his highly tangled in government regulation.

Truly free market health care, such as the Oklahoma Surgery Center is surprisingly cheap and high quality.

Another problem with government based health care is that it encourages overconsumption. In terms of life span, there is little benefit from most health care spending, which is part of the reason U.S. life expectancy is on par with countries like Algeria. Most of the gains in life span happened in the 20th century because of the elimination of a handful of contagious diseases. What remains is often quite intractable to medical intervention, although there are certain drugs like Metformin and statins which do have a large benefit.

What we have now is a 75% government paid for system. Going to 100% might feel like the logical conclusion, but things can still get worse. Why not focus on improving the government system which already costs more than nearly every other country's before expanding it even more?