Concerning 1), many useful practices which would lower cost are barred by the state.
Some states (e.g. NY) ban catastrophic-only health insurance.
All states ban me from self-medicating (which is actually not very hard to do for simple illnesses). I'm also barred from buying lab tests without first paying a doctor for permission.
Women are required to pay a doctor for permission to buy birth control.
I'm banned from visiting someone with less training than a doctor to receive treatment for simple ailments.
Of course, I'll be the first to admit that Baumol's cost disease plays an important role too, as well as higher costs for newer treatments.
The easy problems in medicine are vastly easier than programming. You don't need a doctor to solve them for you, all you need is his permission to implement the well known solution.
If you have an Iranian girlfriend, all you need is for her to smuggle you bootleg medicine when she visits her family. That's what I did.
Some states (e.g. NY) ban catastrophic-only health insurance.
All states ban me from self-medicating (which is actually not very hard to do for simple illnesses). I'm also barred from buying lab tests without first paying a doctor for permission.
Women are required to pay a doctor for permission to buy birth control.
I'm banned from visiting someone with less training than a doctor to receive treatment for simple ailments.
Of course, I'll be the first to admit that Baumol's cost disease plays an important role too, as well as higher costs for newer treatments.