How Subsidies Drive Up Costs in Education and Healthcare 11-10-25 - Becker Business

Summary3 min read

Episode Overview

Podcast: Becker Business
Host: Scott Becker
Episode: How Subsidies Drive Up Costs in Education and Healthcare
Date: November 10, 2025

In this episode, Scott Becker explores the unintended consequences of government subsidies in education and healthcare. He examines how well-intentioned policies have led to significant cost inflation and debt burdens for consumers, while questioning the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of these subsidy-driven systems.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Unintended Impact of Subsidies

Main Claim: Subsidies in education and healthcare, while rooted in positive intentions, often result in rapid cost increases and growing consumer debt.
Comparison: Scott likens education and healthcare subsidies to electric vehicle credits, pointing out that incentivizing purchases often drives prices up due to increased demand.

"When the government aggressively subsidizes health care and education, whether directly or indirectly, it sounds really good on its face... It leads to more buying..."
— Scott Becker [00:17]

Education Subsidies and Skyrocketing Costs

Student Debt Crisis: Government-backed student loans make college more accessible, but they fuel tuition inflation and leave students with overwhelming debt.
Attribution of Blame: While student debt holders are often spotlighted, Becker asserts that universities and the structure of these subsidies are also heavily responsible.
Inflation in Education: Inflation in educational costs has reached historic levels, correlating directly with the growth in government student aid.

"As we've subsidized college education through loan programs, the cost of college education has skyrocketed and the ultimate consequence is students have been left with a ton of student debt."
— Scott Becker [00:30]

"You can blame student debt and I do blame student debt. It's become horrific and you could try and find ways to address some of it. We should, but you can't do that without also blaming the sort of educational establishment..."
— Scott Becker [01:06]

Parallels in Healthcare

Medical Debt: Similar patterns emerge in healthcare, where government subsidies have led to increased costs and widespread medical debt.
Costly Healthcare Ecosystem: Subsidies created a healthcare system that is expensive and often inefficient, leading to medical bankruptcies despite the intent of universal healthcare access.
Good Intentions, Poor Outcomes: Both in education and healthcare, policies begin with strong moral imperatives but frequently end with disastrous financial consequences for individuals and the system at large.

"Healthcare is very similar. We've ended up with people with an insane amount of Medicaid or medical debt, a lot of medical bankruptcies, and a lot of it came with good intentions..."
— Scott Becker [01:21]

Broader Pattern Across Industries

Becker generalizes this outcome, noting that any industry receiving significant government subsidy risks similar runaway costs and inefficiencies.
He emphasizes the recurring pattern: Good intentions lead to policies, but poorly anticipated second-order effects often result in "disasters."

"The idea starts with great intentions, often and often ends up being a disaster."
— Scott Becker [02:01]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Subsidy Comparison:
"It's almost like offering the EV credits to consumers. Electric vehicle credits. It leads to more buying of electric vehicles..."
— Scott Becker [00:18]
On Cost Inflation:
"We've led to absurdly bad second level consequences. What we've led to in education is historic rises in inflation in education and historic amounts of student debt."
— Scott Becker [00:54]
Systemic Blame:
"You can't do that without also blaming the sort of educational establishment in and the subsidies have gone to it. They've driven up the cost of education insanely."
— Scott Becker [01:10]
Healthcare Parallels:
"We've ended up with people with an insane amount of Medicaid or medical debt, a lot of medical bankruptcies, and a lot of it came with good intentions..."
— Scott Becker [01:23]
Industry-Wide Problem:
"Similar in many industries where the government has chosen to subsidize. The idea starts with great intentions, often and often ends up being a disaster."
— Scott Becker [01:52]

Key Segment Timestamps

Opening thesis and explanation of subsidy effects: [00:00–00:54]
Impact on education and student debt: [00:30–01:15]
Healthcare subsidy parallels: [01:15–01:40]
Generalization to other industries and summary: [01:40–02:13]

Tone and Closing

Scott Becker’s tone is candid and analytical, voicing concerns many may find controversial. He stresses the complexity of policy impacts and calls for honest assessment beyond surface-level intentions.

Closing note: Scott promises a lighter, non-serious episode next time, providing some relief after the heavy economic critique.

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Transcript1 lines

[00:00]
A
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. So this discussion comes out of watching the Washington debate over the government shutdown and also watching the cost of college education, the cost of student debt and a lot more. So here's the basic set of issues and it's a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I'll share it anyways. The first concept is that when the government aggressively subsidizes health care and education, whether directly or indirectly, it sounds really good on its face. It's almost like offering the EV credits to consumers. Electric vehicle credits. It leads to more buying of electric vehicles with college education. As we've subsidized college education through loan programs, the cost of college education has skyrocketed and the ultimate consequence is students have been left with a ton of student debt. On healthcare, very much the same. We've driven up the cost of healthcare inadvertently without planning to by offering tons of subsidies through the healthcare world in institutions. So we've left ourselves in a spot where with the intention of doing the right thing, getting college education for everybody, getting healthcare for everybody. These are good objectives with great intentions. We've led to absurdly bad second level consequences. What we've led to in education is historic rises in inflation in education and historic amounts of student debt. You can blame student debt and I do blame student debt. It's become horrific and you could try and find ways to address some of it. We should, but you can't do that without also blaming the sort of educational establishment in and the subsidies have gone to it. They've driven up the cost of education insanely. Healthcare is very similar. We've ended up with people with an insane amount of Medicaid or medical debt, a lot of medical bankruptcies, and a lot of it came with good intentions that would subsidize people's healthcare, thus there'd be more healthcare. And it led to this, this growth of a health system, a health world ecosystem that, that doesn't serve us very well, but it's incredibly expensive. We've got a similar situation with education and similar in many industries where the government has chosen to subsidize. The idea starts with great intentions, often and often ends up being a disaster. In any event, thank you so much for listening to the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business Podcast. Promise the next episode will be a non serious episode. Thank you for listening to the Becker Business and Becker Private Equity Podcast.