Republican Healthcare Myths Debunked: U.S. Innovation & Subsidizing Others

Conservatives argue that the U.S. healthcare system is responsible for a uniquely high amount of medical innovation. They also argue that higher U.S. healthcare costs supply the medical industry with the necessary income to fund their R&D—which the rest of the world benefits from. As I show here, these, and other related arguments, are not supported by the appropriate data and don't stand up to scrutiny.

Thumbnail photos: Ajale/Pixabay; jnn1776/Flickr

[amazingbollweevil]

I love it when they tell me how much it costs to bring a drug to market. I always counter with "How much does it take to bring a fighter jet to market?" The point being, the government can absorb the entire amount and still leave a profit for the developer. I wish the government did a better job defending their citizens from disease.

[epochphilosophy]

You are criminally underrated. Holy shit. Such a wonderful channel.

[hueyfreeman]

The whole “capitalism drives innovation” argument is baseless.... like you said, it’s just a talking point they repeat.

The truth is the public sector is responsible for the most important inventions in modern history. They fund the research and in some cases do more than that, like in the navigation system (GPS).

[tristampratorius]

Another reason the U.S has a high number of ''unique compounds'' (I.E so-called drugs ) is because drug companies take one drug and create a slightly different version of it over and over again. Technically a ''new drug'' but not really productive innovation. Good video.

[jurgnobs]

as a swiss, I am very proud of your findings in that table you made.
I do think that simple per-capita values would have been easier to read and far more precise than what you put out.
either way, switzerland contributes a lot to research, both per capita as well as compared to its GDP.
I ve had many political discussions with americans and it annoys me so incredibly much how many of them do not understand the importance of per capita values. I guess if you grow up in a tiny country like switzerland, you get a different perspective.

[elfullin]

I LOVE YOUR How do you only have 8.9K. Bro, amazing job..

[Chipster]

You should debunk some of Stefan Molyneux’s vids

[tschichpich]

17:50 more Military = more Healthcare
I think he tries to argue that more Military means more wounded Soldiers and that's were the higher spendings come from
I still don't think that it makes sense but okay

[somemysteriousguy]

I hope those people who posted those comments see this video. Keep up the great work!

[a.randomjack]

Nah, Crowder does not smoke anything, it's just an accute case of hysteria.

[HeadGodoftheGodCouncil]

Ok, so we spend less on Military, ofc we do. Yet you take OUR technology FOR your military (This is aimed for Crowder). The best military technology is Swedish. Just saying.

[PhilosophicalZombieHunter]

You do realise that you just debunked yourself with the $2.8billion figure to make a new drug, right?
The FDA set that bar and that is the core reason why drug prices are so high. You said so yourself.
That is where those gigantic profits come from.. supply and demand in a low supply industry..

[Moneyaddthenmultiply]

It’s impressive how many bizarre arguments they come up with

[GodsJoke]

When it comes to healthcare spending i am a bit confused as to what you mean by US spends more. As you have shown in many charts and said yourself most of the funding for healthcare comes from the private sector. So when it comes to healthcare funding, most of it does not come from the taxpayer. Unless you mean that US spends more on health care as in, the individuals have more expensive drugs and treatments. If that is the case then you have a point since as you have shown drugs can be more expensive in the US. So correct me if i am wrong but saying that the US spends more on healthcare can be a bit misleading since it can sound like the government is spending more of taxpayer's money than most other countries on healthcare and i don't think that would be accurate.

[edwardzhang]

actually, the US healthcare industry was heavily regulated in the 70s and 80s while in the 90s, laws such as Hatch-Waxman and PDUFA were passed that allowed companies to bring drugs to the marketplace faster, which may explain why the US was lagging, but caught up by 2010. Also, 41% of bio pharmaceutical patents globally are from the US. The US also has 174 clinical trials per million people compared to the EU at 37 and Japan at 15.

[Andy-losp]

So America does have more than half of the world’s nobel laureates in medicine, and an outsized fraction of the *most* significant medical innovations come out of the US - just looking at raw # of papers published doesn’t do it justice. Likewise, the top medical schools and hospitals by any reputed ranking system are overwhelmingly American.

So America does dominate at the *high end* of medical (and all other) innovation, but as you say, it’s more complicated than just saying that it’s because of the free market.