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The rules of the game determine how everyone plays it. Remove health insurance, and you change the game.
Exactly. The insurance system has created a false economy where a third party payer was introduced, supposedly indifferent to the amount charges. The indemnity-type insurance quickly degenerated as those amounts skyrocketed, leading to various "managed care" scenarios in the early 1980's such as "DRG's" or "diagnostically related groups." Notwithstanding the amounts charged continued to escalate wildly, leading to the various foibles that led to the attempt to pass "HilaryCare" in the early 1990's.
The Clinton Administration, less ideologically driven than the Obama Administration, abandoned those efforts in the face of opposition. The fact is that whether it's DRG's, HilaryCare, RomneyCare or ObamaCare this insurance-centric system is unsustainable since it deprives the ultimate consumer of any incentive to shop or bargain prices. Insurance should be limited to protecting against being bankrupted. That's it.
You hit the nail on the head....prices for services rose when insurance came into being. Drop the prices to what folks can pay, and get rid of insurance altogether. Yeah, it will take a while for folks to realize that nothing is free (although they should know that anyway!)
My Uncle was in the hospital for 3 weeks....Medicare and his supplemental ins were billed $119,000, but between the 2 insurances, the price was dropped to $14,000 and then, they paid a portion of that! Still overpriced, but to take $105,000 off the bill? C'mon...not a real price at all!!!
The entire system is screwed up.
Doctors always over-bill. Medicare does not accommodate their over-billing. But they still keep doing it. I saw that on all the bills that my parents would get.
I think that maybe we should also chuck all the medical equipment, diagnostic tests, and drugs that have come along since the "good old days" before insurance came along, too. That way your MD can show up at your house, listen to your heart, take your pulse, and inform you that you've got a bad ticker and you best get your affairs in order because he can't do much for you except prescribe bed rest.
I think that maybe we should also chuck all the medical equipment, diagnostic tests, and drugs that have come along since the "good old days" before insurance came along, too. That way your MD can show up at your house, listen to your heart, take your pulse, and inform you that you've got a bad ticker and you best get your affairs in order because he can't do much for you except prescribe bed rest.
It's surprising how little effect all of that modern diagnostic gear has had on life expectancy.
Of course, everyone has a Great Aunt Nellie that had a mysterious condition found just in the nick of time.
Doctors always over-bill. Medicare does not accommodate their over-billing. But they still keep doing it. I saw that on all the bills that my parents would get.
Overbilling is worse when an indifferent third-party is paying it.
If most of the U.S. population were strewn across our southern borders, there would be no great need for health insurance. It would also greatly reduce the prices hospitals/doctors charge us and the insurance companies. And, perhaps, when Cuba opens up more, Floridians will opt to go to Cuba for medical care!
If you lived in San Diego, for instance, you could go 14 miles south to Tijuana and go the International Red Cross Clinic over there and see a Dr. or 50 peso's/$4.50! I did that last summer! That's all it cost me!
I've done some other medical tourism to Mexico, and once there, they know that your insurance won't cover it, so there's no incentive to over-charge or urge you to get any number of imaging tests!
I had a Baker's Cyst aspirated at the Angeles Hospital in Tijuana, recently, and when I showed him my images from my Ultrasound/X-rays/MRI's, my Dr. said: For Pete's Sakes! You have a Baker's Cyst! You don't need an X-ray or MRI for a Baker's Cyst! Only an ultrasound reading!
Why all that extra imaging? Because my insurance company was footing the bill!
Eliminating the middle man is always a good idea. I remember when medical care was very affordable, the 50s and 60s into the 70s even. All you really needed was a major medical plan. Now, you need 2 or 3 people in the office just taking care of the insurance. They push pharmaceuticals like crazy to the point that you are taking 10, each one trying to fix the side effects of the one prescribed before it. It has become a nightmare. The medical machine is one of the few industries in the US and the economy has come to rely on it. It is sad.
Yes, medical care would be less expensive if better managed and eliminating as many middlemen as possible.
I'd prefer no insurance, or only insurance in case of major illness or accident(hospital bill will be over $30k) otherwise no coverage and we would take the risk/save the money we spend on it to save up for those situations. right now, we are young and do not need insurance except for the chance of a major tragedy or illness. We have had the flu many times, always let it run it's course, otherwise fairly healthy right now. Maybe when were old we will need it, but right now it's a waste of money every month.
I think that maybe we should also chuck all the medical equipment, diagnostic tests, and drugs that have come along since the "good old days" before insurance came along, too. That way your MD can show up at your house, listen to your heart, take your pulse, and inform you that you've got a bad ticker and you best get your affairs in order because he can't do much for you except prescribe bed rest.
Adults also only went to the doctor when they were actually sick. None of all that preventive medicine and this test and that test ($$$$$). I only remember my Mom going to the doctor when she tripped on a NYC curb (50's), cut her ankle on a piece of iron sticking out, and sprained her ankle. Doctor, not a Hospital. Yearly physicals for healthy adults? Nope.
Children did have Well Visits, once a year. Sick? Doctor came to your home carrying only his black medical bag. I remember it well from the 1950's. I grew up in Manhattan too. Pediatricians went around to NYC apartment buildings!
Why are costs so high today? Medicine is now BIG BUSINESS. The more tests, the better, and the more money to be made. Fear sells medical care. I am going to get sick. I am going to die. It did not use to be like that decades ago.
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