> I think price-fixing works in, for example healthcare, because then you also have a single payer system. So there is one entity that buys almost all service capacity and thus gets a lot of say in the price.
That'd be the monopsony option I mentioned. When you have (actually, or effectively) one buyer, they tell you how much profit you can make, and can pressure you even further to pressure your own suppliers to bring prices down further.
> Source: I’m an extensively trained armchair economist.
Same, to put my cards on the table, but I've spent an unhealthy (haha) amount of time reading about healthcare systems and when I started to draw a line between all the non-US systems among OECD and other rich countries, that was the single thing that stood out as being common to all of them, despite there actually being a huge variety of approaches. They all seem at least medium-term stable (which is more than I can say for our US system, which seems like a train racing straight for a canyon wall, while also coming apart at every seam and bolt) and none appear to exhibit, to a significant degree, the usual problems Econ 101 (and, indeed, plenty of real-world examples) tells you price fixing ought to raise very quickly, which means it's "never a good idea" or "never works". In fact, in this case... I mean, it sure looks like it works, doesn't it? And it's not like we only have one example.
That'd be the monopsony option I mentioned. When you have (actually, or effectively) one buyer, they tell you how much profit you can make, and can pressure you even further to pressure your own suppliers to bring prices down further.
> Source: I’m an extensively trained armchair economist.
Same, to put my cards on the table, but I've spent an unhealthy (haha) amount of time reading about healthcare systems and when I started to draw a line between all the non-US systems among OECD and other rich countries, that was the single thing that stood out as being common to all of them, despite there actually being a huge variety of approaches. They all seem at least medium-term stable (which is more than I can say for our US system, which seems like a train racing straight for a canyon wall, while also coming apart at every seam and bolt) and none appear to exhibit, to a significant degree, the usual problems Econ 101 (and, indeed, plenty of real-world examples) tells you price fixing ought to raise very quickly, which means it's "never a good idea" or "never works". In fact, in this case... I mean, it sure looks like it works, doesn't it? And it's not like we only have one example.