by Jason Crawford · May 10, 2025 · 2 min read
In the progress movement, some cause areas are about technical breakthroughs, such as fusion power or a cure for aging. In other areas, the problems are not technical, but social. Housing, for instance, is technologically a solved problem. We know how to build houses, but housing is blocked by law and activism.
The YIMBY movement is now well established and gaining momentum in the fight against the regulations and culture that hold back housing. More broadly, similar forces hold back building all kinds of things, including power lines, transit, and other infrastructure. The same spirit that animates YIMBY, and some of the same community of writers and activists, has also been pushing to reform regulation such as NEPA.
Healthcare has both types of problems. We need breakthroughs in science and technology to beat cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and aging. But also, healthcare (in the US at least) is far more expensive and less effective than it should be.
I am no expert, but I am struck that:
Just to name a few.
Bill Gurley wrote in 2017 that “we have the worst of both worlds … the illusion of a free market and the illusion of regulated market with the apparent benefit of neither.” John Arnold said more recently that health care is “not a fair and open market” and that it has basically every market failure. Or in Alex Tabarrok’s words, “any theory of what is wrong with American health care is true because American health care is wrong in every possible way.”
We could do much better, without any scientific or pharmaceutical breakthroughs, by reforming law and culture.
Where is the equivalent of the YIMBY movement for healthcare? Where are the people pointing out the gross violation of economic wisdom and common sense? Where are the campaigners for reform against the worst inefficiencies?
This field is wide open, and some smart writer or savvy activist should step in and fill the vacuum.
UPDATE: Niskanen has a report by Lawson Mansell: “Healthcare abundance: An agenda to strengthen healthcare supply”
UPDATE 2: The Institute for Justice is also working to repeal certificate of need laws.
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