The Medical System Reaching Into My Pocket Is a Taxpayer

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In the current system, we've cut all the feedback loops that normally encourage good performance where people have skin in the game. The medical system reaching into my pocket is a taxpayer to do stuff on people who often sometimes don't need it, and sometimes it makes them worse. And then most worrying to me was the statistic that I discovered that we're actually losing in terms of our retirement monies.

Physician and author Vivian Lee talks about her book The Long Fix with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Lee argues that we can transform health care in the United States, though it may take a while. She argues that the current fee-for-service system incentivizes doctors to provide services rather than keep patients healthy and that these are not the same thing. Topics explored include innovations in Medicare and in technology that might change treatment incentives as well as the weird world of health care pricing.