Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
At least the OP is willing to pay cash for his health care. In my opinion, the only way to reduce the outrageous cost for healthcare is to require all patients to participate in their own healthcare cost with an affordable copay, based on a percentage of the total cost. Healthcare providers should be required to display prices for all of their services on their website. Then, patients could shop around for the best service and price. Insurance companies should not be allowed fo cover healthcare costs at 100 percent where the patient doesn't care, or even know, the actual cost for their treatment.
|
Perhaps you don't realize this, but the "prices" for Medicare patients are set by the government, and the private insurers base their reimbursement on a percentage of the Medicare fee, usually 115%. So a display would be exactly the same for all physicians in the same specialty and geographic area. And most insurances have some type of co-pay, so your premise is already in place. Besides, physician services only account for 9% of the total health cost in the US.
So what drives "the outrageous" cost of healthcare?
1) technology--everyone wants "a test"
2) litigation---Out of a 3 trillion dollar/year healthcare bill, estimates show up to 800 billion is wasted on useless tests ordered defensively to avoid lawsuits
3) pharmaceutical costs---It now takes almost 1 billion and 6 years to bring a drug to market, only for the company to get sued at every opportunity. My suggestions is that all plaintiff's attorneys engaged in healthcare lawsuits have to receive THEIR treatment with technology and drugs from 100 years ago and see how they change their tune
4) long term care---Americans are living much longer and fewer and fewer families take care of their parents at home
The problem is that there is so much $$$$ involved that no one really wants to change it. Hilary was supposed to fix it in the first hundred days of 1993
Obamacare is a total joke that has driven to cost up further and is the biggest tax hike in history. European models don't really work. They do in a small country, but with 330 million Americans not so much. Plus European systems rely on rationing to keep cost down, something I doubt America is willing to accept. So for now I'm afraid the spiral will continue.