Healthcare Nut Job Ezekiel Emanuel Wants Patients to Get Less Expensive Hip Replacement Implants

Emanuel is a real trip. The quack thinks he can plan the entire health care industry. He even has a plan that he says will result in the healthcare industry using cheaper hip-replacement materials. He writes in NYT:

To change these incentives, we must introduce “bundling” — which, as the name implies, means paying for a patient’s entire care episode rather than every single test and treatment he gets. Imagine, for example, a patient who comes to the hospital for a hip replacement. That patient and his insurer (whether it’s Aetna or Medicare) will be billed separately for the X-rays, laboratory tests, the surgeon’s fee, the anesthesiologist’s fee, the rehabilitation services, the hospital bill and the visits to the doctor after he’s discharged.

In a bundled payment system, all the bills are rolled into one standard hip-replacement charge. The idea is to force all of a patient’s care providers to work together. They have a strong incentive to eliminate unnecessary tests and treatments and use less expensive implants, drugs and devices that don’t compromise quality, and to prevent infections and other complications that could land the patient back in the hospital.

Emanuel is one clueless dude about free markets, there wouldn't be more expensive hip-replacements in a free market it they weren't of better quality. The only place you are going to see that is where politically connected get to influence what type replacement is approved.

Further, notice that he is talking about incentives, but at the government-insurance level. Why not simply allow people to choose their own healthcare program, just like people get to choose the type of cell phone service they want.

I wouldn't want Emanuel designing and limiting my cell phone options and I sure as hell don't want him planning and limiting healthcare options. Where does this guy get off thinking he knows what the best healthcare plan is for every person in the United States? And yet this dude is a key player in Obama's healthcare plan. Scary