Escaping the Sick-Care Trap: A Blueprint to Cut US Healthcare Costs in Half
The United States spends nearly 18% of its GDP on healthcare—roughly $4.5 trillion annually—yet ranks poorly among developed nations in life expectancy and chronic disease outcomes. We do not have a healthcare system; we have a "sick-care" administration system, burdened by layers of bureaucracy, artificial scarcity, cartel-like pricing, and a failure to address the root causes of illness, all driven by artificial regulations and misaligned incentives that collectively break the entire system. Tinkering around the edges will not fix this. Achieving a dramatic reduction in costs—cutting expenses and premiums by 50% while improving access—requires a synchronized blitzkrieg of policy reforms. We must simultaneously unleash free-market competition, eliminate administrative waste and fraud, end price-gaming schemes, restore clinical freedom, and, most critically, shift the paradigm from managing chronic disease to cultivating metabolic health. Repeal "Certificate of Need...