The dangers of vertical integration in health care

Summary: Health care in the U.S. is too expensive because a few giant companies own everything. Imagine if one car company owned the factory, the dealership, the bank, the insurance company, and the repair shop. That is exactly what companies like UnitedHealthcare do with pharmacies, insurance, and doctors. This is called "vertical integration," and it keeps prices high.

To make things worse, Wall Street investors are now paying for medical lawsuits just to make a profit. This makes insurance for doctors so expensive that many have to quit, making it harder for patients to get care.

Dr. Stephanie Waggel, who has worked in five different countries, says a government-run system isn't the answer either. She says nobody wants their doctor's office to run as slow as the DMV. Instead, we need to break up these giant companies. Let doctors run clinics, let pharmacists run pharmacies, and get rid of the greedy middlemen.

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