What would be the "Henry George" solution to healthcare government policy?

in #bigpharma2 months ago

For context, this is a question I originally answered on Quora

Healthcare was not an issue people thought government should address when Henry George was alive. Most 19th century hospital care was charitable and workers formed mutual aid and fraternal societies to pool their money and pay for doctor’s visits through what was known as lodge practice. At its height, a third of Americans belonged to mutual aid or fraternal societies. While George was a proponent of nationalizing public infrastructure such as rail roads I doubt he would take the same approach to hospitals and doctor’s offices, as he was still in fact a capitalist. He would however take issue with how the patent system is abused to keep generic drug markets at bay for decades through a process known as ever-greening so patentees can price gouge patients. He would take issue with those same patentees giving the doctor’s of those patients gifts and payments unrelated to research that results in a clear bias for prescribing the patentee’s brand name drug over a cheaper generic and he would also be disgusted by how hospitals have used a monopolistic business model to price gouge patients with zero transparency for costs upfront. He would also be perplexed by the insurance schemes that deny coverage operations/medications referred or prescribed by a doctor as if the adjuster knows better. Georgists aren’t going to agree on a single solution to America’s failed healthcare system but given that emergency medical care is already a “right” under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, but as an unfunded mandate this would probably be the best place to start with a single source of reimbursement. This isn’t really different than how we treat other emergency services like fire & rescue. I’ve outline other solutions to patentees price gouging patients in a prior answer.

Do Libertarians believe in an unregulated pharma industry? If not, how controlling should the government be of pricing of medications?

  1. Abolish evergreening
  2. Reinstate the Reasonable Pricing Clause of the Bayh-Dole Act
  3. Exercise March-In-Rights
  4. Allow generic competition against price gougers
  5. Expedite IP Waivers and Compulsory Licenses