Saturday, January 7, 2017

Why Insurance Companies Don't Want Hospital Costs to Fall

This tiny tweet by Michel Accad MD about the healthcare system and medical insurance explains more about the crony system than anything else you could possibly read:


Insurance companies use as a selling point that their buying power gives them a pricing advantage for insured.

They want high out-of-network prices to be high because it drives people to get more coverage from them to protect against the high prices. It is Congressional legislation that creates a system of high out-of-network prices.

That is it's a rigged crony legislated system that benefits insurance companies by causing out-of-network prices to be sky high.

Government needs to be totally out of healthcare so that healthcare prices would fall the way computer prices, laptops, flat-screen televisions and cellphones fall now. It will only happen if a free market without any "help" from Congress is allowed to return.

 -RW

6 comments:

  1. The “totally out” includes state governments which grant hospitals the ability to form Cartels exactly like Taxi Cartels requiring a “Certificate of Need” for any new hospitals or expansions.

    The entire Med providers including doctors & labs have anti-competitive gov grants through such things as licensing. One example is a new Ap allowing docs to perform an $800 lab test in their office for pennies. When I asked a doc friend about it, he told me he knew of it but does not use it because it would require him to take courses & get a lab license with ongoing courses & license renewals. So, instead of 1 doc visit & a few pennies for a test, there are 2 doc visits (1 to order the test & the 2nd to evaluate the results) + an $800 lab visit taking a few days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have health insurance for a few very good reasons (trust me on this). While in the States, I was prescribed a medicine by a dermatologist. At the pharmacy, the tech looked at the price of the medication and blanched. $925.00 for a one month supply!!! She did some magic on the computer and apparently slipped me into an insurance cohort. Suddenly the price was $25.00!!! If it weren't for the window barrier, I would have kissed her.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Insurance companies want higher medical prices so more people need to buy health insurance. No shit...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah genius, except in a free market you wouldn't have the discrepancy between the incredible prices that individuals pay and the huge discounts health insurance companies pay. That's government legislation at work.

      Delete
  4. I hope I live to see the day where there are Jiffy Lube type places for all basic medical needs.

    ReplyDelete