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My question is why government doesn't do it's JOB and start prosecuting the medical industry under current law. USC 15
We need to force insurance companies to be real insurance companies. None of this "in net work" and "out of network" B.S. they play with the medical providers. You have a health issue insurance PAYS. None of this collusion on pricing. Auto insurance pays for claims regardless of where the incident happens; so should medical insurance providers.
There shouldn't be different pricing structures depending on how you are paying for the service. Gas stations can't price gasoline based on who your insurance company is or MORE if you don't have insurance. How come medical providers can?
Pricing should be agreed upon with a legally binding estimate before you receive service. If you are incapacitated you should be charged a like amount for similar procedures.
Why can't I start importing prescription drugs from other countries for resale here in the U.S. ? If the drugs are safe enough for a citizen of another country why aren't they "safe" for Americans? It isn't about protecting Americans; its about protecting drug companies profits.
We are being screwed by our elected officials that 1) Won't do their jobs and 2) Are getting their cut of the financial action from lobbyists.
Yup.. when it comes to getting things done in this country, there must be a profit motive. No profit motive or the status quo is already profitable? nothing gets done.
Since insurance companies are private entities, I don't think we can (or should) use legislature to tell them how to run their business. I'm afraid it creates a precedent that can be applied to all businesses (esp other types of insurances). There is a reason why there is in-network and out-of-network B.S.... because the entire industry is profit motive driven AND dysfunctional. If we want insurance companies to operate with the interest of the public in mind (not profit), we need to make them government agencies.
My question is why government doesn't do it's JOB and start prosecuting the medical industry under current law. USC 15
We need to force insurance companies to be real insurance companies. None of this "in net work" and "out of network" B.S. they play with the medical providers. You have a health issue insurance PAYS. None of this collusion on pricing. Auto insurance pays for claims regardless of where the incident happens; so should medical insurance providers.
There shouldn't be different pricing structures depending on how you are paying for the service. Gas stations can't price gasoline based on who your insurance company is or MORE if you don't have insurance. How come medical providers can?
Pricing should be agreed upon with a legally binding estimate before you receive service. If you are incapacitated you should be charged a like amount for similar procedures.
Why can't I start importing prescription drugs from other countries for resale here in the U.S. ? If the drugs are safe enough for a citizen of another country why aren't they "safe" for Americans? It isn't about protecting Americans; its about protecting drug companies profits.
We are being screwed by our elected officials that 1) Won't do their jobs and 2) Are getting their cut of the financial action from lobbyists.
You answered your own question. $$$, the ultimate corrupter.
In the USA any dollar is a good dollar, no matter how much suffering and blood is dripping from it.
The simple minded still swallow the fantasy that the "free market" will fix this when we all know better. Health care is a market with inflexible demand. Competition will NOT drive down prices. Feels good to say it though.
Because labor unions are extremely weak compared to other countries.
That makes no sense. Labor union members have cadillac health care plans (much better than most others). Obama even had to exempt them from the Obama care tax levied on cadillac health care plans under Obamacare.
You answered your own question. $$$, the ultimate corrupter.
In the USA any dollar is a good dollar, no matter how much suffering and blood is dripping from it.
The simple minded still swallow the fantasy that the "free market" will fix this when we all know better. Health care is a market with inflexible demand. Competition will NOT drive down prices. Feels good to say it though.
No, it feels good when a patient actually experiences prices lowered by competition. Some years ago (pre ACA) I had a high deductible plan that required me to pay the first $6000 for services before the insurance kicked in. My doctor said I needed a CT scan and scheduled one at hospital A. I asked hospital A to give me a cost for the scan and their initial reaction was “why do you need to know that?”. Anyway several days and many phone calls later they came back with $2800 plus the fee for the radiologist, total about $3200. Seemed like a high price to me. I did what any rational consumer would do, I shopped around.
I checked with hospital B (much nicer people to deal with) and they said the cost including the radiologist fee would be $1200. It was a tough decision but I had the CT scan at hospital B. They even gave me an additional discount of 20% because I wrote a check and paid the day of the procedure. My total was less than $1000 — or one third the cost of the other hospital, for the same procedure. At the follow-up consultation, my doctor at hospital A said he was surprised by the difference in cost, and could not explain it.
The free market does indeed work for health care when there is transparency and competition.
I suspect the reason is there is no profit in universal health care. Think about it; the "ACA" (aka Obamacare) was written by the health insurance lobby. The law ensures that profits for health "insurers" are 10% of money spent on medical care for their clients. So where is there an incentive to control costs? I bet an insurance company would rather pay out 200K for a procedure rather than 100k.
90% of the people in the "health care" industry do not provide direct patient care.
There is no way to screw over Americans with universal health care therefore it will never happen.
Are you kidding me?
I can list about 20 right off the top of my head!
Good grief, just transferring the cost from employers, i.e., greedy international corporations, to ordinary working Americans would be the hugest mass screwing of Americans in history!
No it wasn’t. Taxes to cover all of these social safety nets in other countries may not be 80% but I’ve read 68% quite often.
So the person making $50k per year, averaging 28% income tax can afford an additional 40%? Nope. I know I couldn’t afford another 40% taxes on my income.
ANYTHING the fed does it turns out in time to NOT be efficient and grows way beyond it's original charter with escalating budgets. Read about the EPA and its original charge and see what it is today and it's budget.
Why do we even need a Dept of Education when education is a STATE responsibility.
Today it is $68BILLION. What do we bet for that $68 BILLION a year?
We already have a good example of how "well" the fed runs health care by looking at the VA and it's history.
If we CAN'T run the VA efficiently, More than nine millionveterans are served each year by the Department of Veterans Affairs, what in the world make you think we can take care of ENTIRE country with 329,064,917 people?
It's called you work, make money, buy insurance, go to dr when insurance allows, or pay out of your own pocket for services rendered. Healthcare is available for everyone. Just go to the ERs and see all the illegals with sniffles waiting for their free healthcare. Hopefully, with Trump as President, they are few and far between now.
Oh that's not so, MANY govt programs work great, our highways, fire and police depts, postal, love them all in my 81 yrs on planet. Complain complain complain so many good at that one.
" MANY govt programs work great" Try to stay on topic. We are talking about the FED NOT state govt's.
An apples and oranges statement.
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but I had the CT scan at hospital B. They even gave me an additional discount of 20% because I wrote a check and paid the day of the procedure. My total was less than $1000 — or one third the cost of the other hospital, for the same procedure. At the follow-up consultation, my doctor at hospital A said he was surprised by the difference in cost, and could not explain it.
