It could be argued that modern technology created the need for healthcare insurance in the first place: before technology, including new medications, became effective, to go to a hospital was regarded as a death sentence and the wealthy died at home, under the care of their personal physicians. Life spans were shorter, and patent medicines of dubious value were the main ways of treating illnesses. "What we recognize as modern medicine…began in the 1920s. That's when doctors and hospitals, having only during the previous decade learned enough about disease that they could be reliably helpful in treating sick people, began charging more than most individuals could easily pay" (Noah 2007). On a very narrow view of economies of scale, improved personal technology may result in lower costs: but it could also be argued that without computers and cars, it was far easier to live on a subsistence income, many years...
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