UC Medical Humanities Consortium

In a market economy, it’s axiomatic that competition leads to lower prices. So why has just the opposite happened in American healthcare? Historians Brian Dolan and Steve Beitler show how key healthcare participants – physicians, patients, pharmaceutical companies, insurers, hospitals, and the federal government – have each contributed to ever-rising costs while pointing to others as the true culprits. This primer surveys the central arguments each sector has made over the last century to justify its prices. The book also shows where ultimate responsibility lies: the triumph of free-market principles that reward profitability at the expense of affordability, access, and cost-effectiveness. By examining the case each sector has made for its prices, Why Is U.S. Healthcare So Costly? A Brief History of (Not) Controlling Healthcare Costs in America offers a succinct account of how healthcare economics has defied the idea that competition reduces prices.