It's good to keep in mind that not all medical services are price inelastic in the sense that ambulance costs or emergency hospital visits are.
GP visits/non-emergency general surgeries/general medicines - just like food, are all necessities for survival, and are all locally price elastic, with the exception of medicines that have regulatory capture - not a free market, such as insulin which is many X the cost in the US because of a government-enforced oligopoly.
This means that no single supplier (whether of food or non-emergency medicine) can raise their prices because consumers have time to find a cheaper alternative. Unless they collude, which is illegal, and impractical for many markets such as GP visits.
For these particular goods, does your view differ, when compared to emergency services which we agree are price inelastic? And if not, how do such services differ to the foods market - holding aside regulatory capture of things such as insulin which we both probably agree is not a good thing?
GP visits/non-emergency general surgeries/general medicines - just like food, are all necessities for survival, and are all locally price elastic, with the exception of medicines that have regulatory capture - not a free market, such as insulin which is many X the cost in the US because of a government-enforced oligopoly.
This means that no single supplier (whether of food or non-emergency medicine) can raise their prices because consumers have time to find a cheaper alternative. Unless they collude, which is illegal, and impractical for many markets such as GP visits.
For these particular goods, does your view differ, when compared to emergency services which we agree are price inelastic? And if not, how do such services differ to the foods market - holding aside regulatory capture of things such as insulin which we both probably agree is not a good thing?