What I learned week 2

What I learned week #3

I think the biggest thing that I took away from this week was on the topic of healthcare economics. I learned that the healthcare industry is NOT a competitive market; and this has its pros and cons. One major reason that healthcare isn't a free market, is something that I have already read upon; that pharmaceutical and medical-device firms use patent monopolies, granted to foster innovation, to impose huge price premiums on their life-saving products, giving those companies the highest profit margins in the world. While they're at it, they use the same patent monopolies to charge high prices for things that aren't so innovative. Another interesting thing I learned is that everyone pays for health insurance, no matter the industry. For example, you buy a pack of gum for $1.99; some percentage of that price factors in the health insurance cost that the company has to pay its employees; so if the company didn't have to grant its employees health insurance, that pack of gum may only be $1.75.

I also learned what a single-payer healthcare system is, or better known as national healthcare. Canada's healthcare system and the U.S. Medicare system are single-payer. Everyone is required to pay into a government insurance plan, which in turn pays doctors and hospitals. ... And in each country, the government spends less per capita on healthcare than the U.S. government spends.