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By law, Medicare's hands are tied. Insurance companies, however, have a vested interest in ensuring patients get the best price. Not out of altruism, but because it directly impacts their bottom line. The only exception would be if there is any collusion between insurance providers and hospitals.
Yes, it is disgusting. Big Pharma and the healthcare system, in general, have maneuvered themselves into a position of usury and exploitation through crony capitalism, and favorable regulations that they've bought and paid for.
By law, Medicare's hands are tied. Insurance companies, however, have a vested interest in ensuring patients get the best price. Not out of altruism, but because it directly impacts their bottom line. The only exception would be if there is any collusion between insurance providers and hospitals.
But there is. It's the way cronyism works.
The same goes for student loans. The government opens low-interest loan programs, increasing the student pool. The colleges in turn raise their rates because the demand is pumped up. The government then removes the ability to file bankruptcy, locking in the debt. The loans go into default, and the fines and percentages skyrocket; creating a windfall for the colleges, loan originators (government) and collection services.
EVERYONE gets a piece of the pie. The students are screwed for life, becoming indentured servants to the government. Now, the government allows students to give them 10 years of their lives, and the debt is magically forgiven.
It's one massive circle jerk. Nothing more than a bait and switch designed to grow the government, and dependence on it.
Thank you for posting this. This is exactly the first issue that needs to be addressed rather than who is paying.
· Hospitals arbitrarily set prices based on a mysterious internal list known as the “chargemaster.” These prices vary from hospital to hospital and are often ten times the actual cost of an item. Insurance companies and Medicare pay discounted prices, but don’t have enough leverage to bring fees down anywhere close to actual costs. While other countries restrain drug prices, in the United States federal law actually restricts the single biggest buyer—Medicare—from even trying to negotiate the price of drugs.
I can give you my theory on how they charge their fees.
Insurance companies and the government (Medicare) are large lucrative institutions. They are the customers - not the patients. These large institutions have deep pockets - so the providers can charge large fees because the institutions can pay them.
I guarantee you that if the providers had to deal directly with the patients, there would be no way they could charge that much - because nobody (maybe 5-10%) could pay it. Prices would have to come down. Competition would be in play for health care service.
Thank you for posting this. This is exactly the first issue that needs to be addressed rather than who is paying.
· Hospitals arbitrarily set prices based on a mysterious internal list known as the “chargemaster.” These prices vary from hospital to hospital and are often ten times the actual cost of an item. Insurance companies and Medicare pay discounted prices, but don’t have enough leverage to bring fees down anywhere close to actual costs. While other countries restrain drug prices, in the United States federal law actually restricts the single biggest buyer—Medicare—from even trying to negotiate the price of drugs.
I can give you my theory on how they charge their fees.
Insurance companies and the government (Medicare) are large lucrative institutions. They are the customers - not the patients. These large institutions have deep pockets - so the providers can charge large fees because the institutions can pay them.
I guarantee you that if the providers had to deal directly with the patients, there would be no way they could charge that much - because nobody (maybe 5-10%) could pay it. Prices would have to come down. Competition would be in play for health care service.
That is exactly right. When competition is removed, prices skyrocket. The government has no competition and zero skin in the game, which breeds corruption and inflated (gouging) prices.
The same goes for student loans. The government opens low-interest loan programs, increasing the student pool. The colleges in turn raise their rates because the demand is pumped up. The government then removes the ability to file bankruptcy, locking in the debt. The loans go into default, and the fines and percentages skyrocket; creating a windfall for the colleges, loan originators (government) and collection services.
EVERYONE gets a piece of the pie. The students are screwed for life, becoming indentured servants to the government. Now, the government allows students to give them 10 years of their lives, and the debt is magically forgiven.
It's one massive circle jerk. Nothing more than a bait and switch designed to grow the government, and dependence on it.
Yes, somehow, in both health care and higher ed, no one is held to account.
The amusing part of the higher ed racket is - it's the leftist professors enslaving their brainwashed students so they can lead the life of riley.
That is exactly right. When competition is removed, prices skyrocket. The government has no competition and zero skin in the game, which breeds corruption and inflated (gouging) prices.
If this were true, how does one explain the situation in the rest of the developed world that has true universal healthcare at a fraction of the cost in the U.S.?
I have this article sitting on my desk. I think I've read it 10 times by now. If people don't get really angry when they read it, then they simply don't get it. This should be required reading for every person in the country. I'm not a fan of Time at all, but this article is quite possibly the best piece of reporting I have read in 15 years.
Obamacare will do NOTHING to fix the chargemaster issue. You forget -- all the parties in the "Bitter Pill" were at the table when this piece of shi.......err, 'legislation'.....was drafted.
Oh, what's that? Obama said all of those meetings/transactions would be transparent? He must have announced that on April Fool's Day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoke_Jaguar4
By law, Medicare's hands are tied. Insurance companies, however, have a vested interest in ensuring patients get the best price. Not out of altruism, but because it directly impacts their bottom line. The only exception would be if there is any collusion between insurance providers and hospitals.
You can count on collusion between insurance providers and hospitals. It's inevitable, because of one word:
Insurance companies and the government (Medicare) are large lucrative institutions. They are the customers - not the patients. These large institutions have deep pockets - so the providers can charge large fees because the institutions can pay them.
I guarantee you that if the providers had to deal directly with the patients, there would be no way they could charge that much - because nobody (maybe 5-10%) could pay it. Prices would have to come down. Competition would be in play for health care service.
This is of course why large customers always pay more than the smaller customers. Wait, no. That's not how it works, is it?
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