OT re why should others pay for seniors medical bills:
1. seniors vote more than others
2. until the last 30 years or so, there was a large cohort of permanently poor elders, who did not have the minimum necessities of life (which includes medical care). It is precisely these government wealth transfer programs, that have lifted many seniors out of poverty.
IMO, the solution is price controls on medical costs, including drugs. Abandoning our seniors is not the solution. Almost every other country recognizes that medical costs cannot be set by the market, because a competitive market is not possible. In medical care, costs are inelastic, because consumers do not have choices. They cannot make informed choices between different goods/services, and not buying is not an option. So demand doesn't go down as prices go up, and therefore prices go up endlessly. Someone sitting in an ER, with chest pain, isn't in a position to say, "is TPA worth the extra cost, compared to Streptokinase? Maybe I should see if prices are lower at another hospital, or have my heart attack once TPA is off patent (when the price will be 95% lower)." |
