Is the Average Person's Strong Suit in the Medical Industry?

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There must be issues where you're under legal pressure to use, quote, the best available technology. Is that not true? Well, I think there are two answers to that. One is that the equipment and the technology has to be approved in our country by the Food and Drug Administration. And so we do factor in the financial feasibility of a new program or a new service based on what they think the likely demand would be as well as projected revenue.

Steven Lipstein, President and CEO of BJC HealthCare--a $3 billion hospital system in St. Louis, Missouri--talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of hospitals. They discuss pricing, the advantages and disadvantages of specialization in modern medical care, and culture and governance of non-profit hospitals vs. for-profit hospitals. At the end they talk about the positives and negatives of a national health board patterned after the Federal Reserve.