Is the US system of health insurance just socialized healthcare with less bargaining power? Is there any real advantage to it?
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there is more bargaining power since insurance companies compete against each other. If you have a decent non-government health insurance, you get good care at reasonable cost.
There is less barganing power when negotiating prices of drugs, but drugs are less than 20% of overall healthcare cost.
The problems are duplication of effort in insurance industry, and its profit margins. Other problems are things like young and health that can opt out of insurance, making premiums higher for those who do. And hospitals that are required to provide free emergency care, so they are acting as insurers, except nobody pays them for it, so they try to make money any way they can.
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