Yes, the government can abet this, as when it lets privatizers into the Medicare system to loot it and maim its patients:
https://prospect.org/health/2023-08-01-patient-zero-tom-scully/
But the answer to this isn't *more* privatization. Remember #SarahPalin's scare-stories about how government health care would have "#DeathPanels" where unaccountable officials decided whether your life was worth saving?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26195604/
11/
The reason "death panels" resounded so thoroughly - and stuck around through the years - is that we all understand, at some deep level, that health care will *always* be rationed. When you show up at the Emergency Room, they have to triage you. Even if you're in unbearable agony, you might have to wait, and wait, and wait, because other people (even people who arrive after you do) have it worse.
12/
In America, health care is mostly rationed based on your ability to pay. Emergency room triage is one of the only truly meritocratic institutions in the American health system, where your treatment is based on urgency, not cash. Of course, you can buy your way out of that too, with concierge doctors. And the ER system itself has been infested with #PrivateEquity parasites:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/17/the-doctor-will-fleece-you-now/#pe-in-full-effect
13/
