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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (13353)	2/9/2010 9:47:39 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Somehow the defense industry survives despite the government negotiating contracts/pricing... The defense industry gets very high prices from the government. Also no one was suggesting the pharmaceutical industry wouldn't survive only that we'd get less of it. Why, in this one case, do you believe the manufacturers should just set whatever price the government will pay, without ANY competition? I don't, I'm trying to avoid the government just setting the price, which is what is usually meant in this area when they talk about government "negotiating" the price. Like it or not Tim governments are a HUGE percentage of the marketplace. If the governments are just another buyer (or rarely seller), than they are participating in the marketplace. Organizing the market setup, setting themselves up as a monopsony buyer, or explicitly setting prices, none of those are marketplace activities. Its not government being a HUGE percentage of the marketplace as much as its government moving a lot of the industry out of market control and towards political control.