No Mercy / No Malice: Less for More

In his latest episode, Scott Galloway makes a case that America’s health insurance crisis is not primarily a demand-side problem of affordability, but a supply-side problem of scarcity. Premiums for employer-sponsored plans are projected to rise 11% this year, the steepest jump in two decades and more than three times the rate of inflation. The instinct is to subsidize access. But Galloway argues that pouring money into a system that constrains the supply of doctors, hospitals, and competition is like “pouring fuel on a flame.”

The demand-side trap

Nearly 165 million Americans under 65 get health insurance through their employers. When costs rise, companies shift more of the burden to workers—higher premiums, deductibles, and copays. The average worker is already paying 8% more year-over-year. The standard policy response is to offer subsidies: tax credits, premium deductions, and health savings accounts. In 2025, taxpayers poured $512 billion into the healthcare industry through these channels. But subsidies do nothing to control the underlying cost of care. Between 2011 and 2024, premiums rose 78%, while health spending per person rose 84%. According to an analysis by Yale economist Zach Cooper and Wisconsin professor Stuart Craig, health spending accounted for 91% of the growth in premiums. Insurer markups actually shrank from 19% to 15%. The problem is not insurance p