Show HN: Modeling the US Debt as a Healthcare Pricing Failure ($26T Gap)(taprootlogic.substack.com)
taprootlogic.substack.com
Show HN: Modeling the US Debt as a Healthcare Pricing Failure ($26T Gap)
https://taprootlogic.substack.com/p/the-us-debt-crisis-a-52-trillion
2 comments
Very impressive work. Just followed your Linkedin discussion as well. However, wondering how you not only get this in front of policy makers but also those prepared to pick a fight with incumbents lining their pockets. Needs some brave people. Does this country still have them?
Any thoughts on arguments like https://randomcriticalanalysis.com/why-conventional-wisdom-o... that basically the US spends a lot on healthcare because the US is very rich?
The math suggests we don't have a sovereign debt crisis; we have a pricing crisis.
I isolated federal healthcare spending and compared it to a baseline of CPI + a 1.7% 'Innovation Premium' (using Germany as a control group).
The findings: Federal healthcare overpayment accounts for $26T of our national debt. Without this 'Monopoly Premium,' the US would have barely 9T in debt today. The Structural Cause: I trace this back to the 1997 Residency Cap (supply freeze) and the 85% MLR (which turns insurers into cost-plus contractors)
I'm interested in the community's feedback on the 'Triple Multiplier' logic (Price + Innovation + Interest).
P.S. I'm currently hosting a deeper discussion on the policy implications of this data over on LinkedIn bit.ly/3YEv6kl