Partially the increasing costs of medical treatment is from insurance, but its also due to the American people. The American peoples LOVE for lawsuits, you have a big issue when someone dies under a doctors care. IMO the people have pushed doctors/hospitals (because theyre privately run) to raise the prices to save themselves from these lawsuits. Can you imagine the lawsuits for anesthesiologists? They are one of the highest paid doctors in the US, but are also the most at fault if somehow a patient wakes up at the wrong time or doesnt wake up at all. In turn, they are the most liable when it comes to lawsuits.
You add that with the invention of modern medicine and the modern care the US can make available through its ERs, people abuse the system. People can walk into an ER for the simplest of maladies (Common cold, sprain, etc) and walk out without having to ever pay a bill. They default on the payments, which is lost money for the hospital. The hospitals, running a multi-million even billion dollar facility, need this cash to provide for salaries, improvements, research, etc. How else are they supposed to recoup the money? Only way I see is raising the prices of things. Billing the paying customers more so they can cover the walkouts and potential lawsuits.
Yes involving the government may solve this issue, but that brings us back to the point of doctor salaries. Why would someone want to get involved in a job that wouldnt allow you to pay off your loan and live a "healthy" lifestyle. Now you would say, what about having the government pay for college? I wont claim to know the percentage of Americans and Austrians who graduate fromm college, but from a quick google search its ~35% to 28%. Problem is, there is a HUGE difference in population sizes. That is a lot more money the US has to inject into education than Austria. In todays world, the American economy cannot generate enough to pay for this. It is stretched too thin with Obama attempting to expand the governments influence.
So TL;DR
Lawsuits and walkouts prevent the price of medical care from dropping, the government cannot fix this because it would lower doctor salaries in turn lowering the amount of doctors due to potential debt, and the government cannot pay for schooling because the economy sucks and the government is stretched too thin to generate enough revenue.
My solution(to education):
Create a system similar to Germany's educational system. Create two pathways and advocate for them both. One leads to BAs, MA, Doctorates, etc. while the other leads to a trade such as HVAC, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. There is nothing wrong with being in that type of labor force if you have no desire to go to a 4 year college and get a degree you will never use. Adding a trade school into the equation will allow for competition between both sides of the tree (assuming the trade schools can be advertised properly) and theoretically cause prices to lower until an equilibrium is reached. This may not solve the medical care issue, but that is too complicated an issue for me to hash out at 9 am on a Monday.
