With regard to healthcare - I'm a huge fan of strict regulatotion with regard to infrastructure and lassez faire in FMCG/retail.
And healthcare is quite obviously infrastracture, not FMCG. Trying to press prices down by implementing market methods to healthcare will only result in higher prices because market aims for profit. On the other hand, tariff + treatment standards do the work quite quickly. Won't work w/o free medical education though, because you can't make people work for $50k a year in a public clinic when they've got $500k education loan. So there's no easy way out of the current situation.
So we'll have to agree to disagree on this one, considering quite different economic background and lack of platform for discussion of basic assumptions.
With regard to deficit in general though, my point is that the major reason is not some form of spending, but the major world economy imbalances, which REQUIRE U.S. to to have its military and social spending at the current level. W/o military spending, the 800 U.S. military bases worldwide become obsolete resulting in U.S. backed international trade collapse, w/o social spending, the poor immigrant economy model results in social explosion which ends the state. Neither is acceptable, so there you go budget deficit. Overpricing definitely makes the problem harder, but it's not at the root of it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2017 06:03AM by Kstatida.