The Doctors’ Lounge

The Ship Has Sailed: Mike Munger on Medicare, Markets, and Debt

August 28, 2026·57 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Duke political economist and podcast host Mike Munger (The Answer is Transaction Costs) joins Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka to argue that what Americans call "health insurance" isn't insurance at all — it's a social program where, as Bastiat put it, everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else. Munger walks through why Medicare functions as a bilateral monopoly rather than a market, compares the U.S. system to Germany's competitive-insurer model a...

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