re: Is the Healthcare/Pharma industry a giant scam?

Price transparency is really not very relevant, people only think it is because they think prices are a result of costs, but that’s not the case, it’s actually the other way around. Costs are determined by prices. So finding out what it costs providers to produce a product or service wouldn’t tell you that you were being “scammed”. There is no inherent price to health care or drugs. Prices are determined by the supply of and demand for those products and services. That’s not to say we can’t say anything about the current state of health care pricing. Our government policy regarding health care is to artificially restrict supply (eg licensing, patents, etc) and subsidize/artificially increase demand (eg medicare, Medicaid, etc). In other words, if our government’s goal was to increase health care prices, it would look just as it does now. That’s not to say that it’s the government’s goal, they would probably say it was for safety, though the fact that providers and consumers can’t opt out of these interventions if they wished to do so may make one wonder if this is all in good faith or just a government provided privilege for some at the expense of everyone else.