Eric Boehm: Why Is American Health Care So Dysfunctional?

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

Today's guest is Reason's Eric Boehm, a reporter and the host of the podcast Why We Can't Have Nice Things. The first season of the podcast exposed how little-understood trade policies and regulations screwed with the pricing and availability of everything from baby formula to women's underwear to frozen chicken.

The new season focuses on laws and policies that screw up the supply and costs of health care. It debuts on Thursday, September 5, with the first episode featuring billionaire Mark Cuban talking about his company Cost Plus Drugs, which sells prescription drugs directly to consumers at super-low prices. Coming episodes cover how "certificate of need" laws increase the price and reduce the availability of hospital beds, why bans on organ donor compensation cause the death of thousands every year, how restrictions on telemedicine hurt patients with no gain in safety, and how the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Administration make legal pharmaceuticals like Adderall tougher and tougher to get.

Today's sponsors:

• The Dispatch: Is former President Donald Trump really going to jail? Does President Joe Biden really have what it takes for a second term? Do these questions even matter in the 2024 election? Get past the bluster and get back to the facts by joining The Dispatch.
• The Reason Speakeasy: The Reason Speakeasy is a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy that doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie. The next event is scheduled for Wednesday, September 11, and features Fox News' Kat Timpf, whose new book is I Used To Like You Until…(How Binary Thinking Divides Us). Tickets are $15 and include beer, wine, soft drinks, and food. Go here for details.

• Audio Production: Ian Keyser

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