An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back

“ECONOMIC RULES OF THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MEDICAL MARKET: 1. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option. 2. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure. 3. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care. 4. As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall. 5. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American. 6. More competitors vying for business doesn’t mean better prices […] 7. Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market powers, big providers can simply demand more. 8. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all. 9. There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything and everything. 10. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.”

This quote goes beyond introducing the reader to the assumptions that ground Rosenthal’s work. It supports the idea presented in the Introduction that Americans are generally numb to the confusion that underscores insurance. By stating these concepts as set rules, it forces American readers to contend with their reality and encourages them to begin challenging their assumptions about how healthcare should operate.

“The financial structure of a hospital, due to legal and philosophical constraints, has not developed in the same manners as that of a commercial corporation [...] The [philanthropic] benefactor alone cannot subsidize hospital operations.”

This is a quote from a book entitled The Financial Management of Hospitals by Howard J. Berman and Lewis E. Weeks. Though published in 1982, the book proved to be extremely prescient in predicting the next few decades of changes to the healthcare industry.

“If Republicans were disingenuous in evoking death panels to discredit the Affordable Care Act, Democrats have been equally so in heeding their local hospitals’ calls for more residents.”

While this quote is describing a specific problem within the healthcare industry, it demonstrates the depth of the influence the medical industrial complex has in politics. The Democrats have staked much of their political reputation on passing the ACA and championing healthcare programs that serve all the people. However, they supported a move that ultimately benefited healthcare conglomerates. This shows the true scope of the power the healthcare industry wields in society.