Why Is U.S. Healthcare So Costly?: A Brief History of (Not) Controlling Healthcare Costs in America - Softcover

Dolan, Brian; Beitler, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 13: 9798989922956

Publisher: University of California Health Humanities Press, 2024

Synopsis

In a market economy, it’s axiomatic that competition leads to lower prices. So why has just the opposite happened in American healthcare? Historians Brian Dolan and Steve Beitler show how key healthcare participants – physicians, patients, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, hospitals, and the federal government – have each contributed to ever-rising costs while pointing to others as the true culprits. This primer surveys the central arguments each sector has made over the last century to justify its prices. The book also shows where ultimate responsibility lies: the triumph of free-market principles that reward profitability at the expense of affordability, access, and cost-effectiveness. By examining the case each sector has made for its prices, Why Is U.S. Healthcare So Costly? A Brief History of (Not) Controlling Healthcare Costs in America offers a succinct account of how healthcare economics has defied the idea that competition reduces prices.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Dolan, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of California San Francisco. Stephen Beitler, PhD, is Adjunct Professor of History of Health Sciences at the University of California San Francisco.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Health Humanities Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798989922956
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176