Unjerked E32 Healthcare Costs Part 3

Unjerked Podcast

William Henderson and B. McGraw talk about healthcare costs in the United States. Why are there supply constraints? Do these cause issues? This is Part 3 of 3 episodes.

We first discuss the constraint on the supply of doctors due to the bottleneck of residency slots funded by the government. Because of the unprofitability of residents for hospitals, most of the supply of residents relies on subsidies from the Center For Medicare Services. Unfortunately, the annual number has been held constant since the 1990s. This leads to increased salaries for doctors which contribute to higher healthcare costs. Then we discuss certificate of need laws, which restrict the supply of hospitals in many states. Afterward, we discuss hospital administrative bloat, which is notably higher than in most other countries.

We then go over some broader healthcare topics in the United States. These include the role of food subsidies, which tend toward refined simple carbs in the United States. We talk about the structural issues caused by an aging population, the difficulties with rural healthcare, and the negative effects private equity can have in the industry. Then, we discuss various possible solutions to reduce costs, to include increasing residency slots, negotiating drug prices at the governmental level, and more. Finally, we critique some common arguments seen online and why the are generally not valid.

0:50 Supply of doctors and residency bottleneck

4:28 Certificate of need laws

7:11 Hospital admin bloat

9:35 Food subsidies

10:50 Aging population

11:28 Rural healthcare

12:48 Private Equity

15:45 Possible solutions

24:52 Task shifting

25:41 Problematic counterarguments (2)

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