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Oh, boy! I am going to shop around next time I have a heart attack. And I can't wait to see how much this is going to drop my insurance rates. Could I be able to afford a new car now?
Oh, boy! I am going to shop around next time I have a heart attack. And I can't wait to see how much this is going to drop my insurance rates. Could I be able to afford a new car now?
Here we have a liberal who can't give Trump credit for a very good move.
Why sarcastically pick an extreme example? What about all the elective procedures? I myself need a surgical procedure that I've been putting off - with Obamacare-approved "insurance" I have to pay the full amount - and now I can shop it around a few local hospitals.
(What's more, it will force hospitals to compete - and competition brings lower prices.)
New federal regulations finalized Nov. 15 require hospitals to make public all the prices they negotiate with insurers and health plans, starting in 2021. The aim is to untangle the hospital marketplace with a wave of consumer-friendly information that will promote competition that leads to lower costs.
Hospitals are not happy, but advocates of well-informed, patient-centered health care should be cheering.
...
Under the new regulations, hospitals, which account for about one-third of all health care costs, also have to divulge the actual rates paid by health plans and insurers for those same codes.
To help consumers make apples-to-apples comparisons, hospitals will be required to go beyond the individual codes and post their negotiated rates for a list of 300 so-called “shoppable” services that consumers might examine before selecting a provider. This requires hospitals to link services that usually accompany each other, such as laboratory and pathology charges along with surgery.
One of the few instances where a regulation frees up the marketplace.
It's a good law, and Trump wins again --- but why do we have to wait until 2021?
[url="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/health/hospitals-trump-prices-transparency.html"]Hospitals Sue Trump to Keep Negotiated Prices Secret
They argued that the administration exceeded its legal authority in issuing the rule last month as part of its efforts to make the health care system much more transparent to patients. The lawsuit contends the requirement to disclose their private negotiations with insurers violates their First Amendment rights.
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What about the rights of consumers under capitalism to know what they are being charged before hand?
Not a law, a regulation from the HHS. Trump could have had them do this on day one in office, if he'd wanted to.
So Obama could have done this his first day of his 8 year Presidency? no wonder healthcare costs have gone through the roof and Obamacare was an abject failure.
Yes, EXCELLENT first step to providing patients with transparency.
Another thing Trump pushed through (in his first two years, when the GOP was fully in control) was the removal of the "gag order" that permitted insurance companies to FORBID pharmacies from letting customers know that there were cheaper options than putting through a claim on the insurance company.
Nice that we have a president who isn't afraid to take on the medical industry, but of course he isn't dependent on their political contributions like Obama was.
Trump needs to do something about the 500 other politicians that are on the take from the industry.
Oh, boy! I am going to shop around next time I have a heart attack. And I can't wait to see how much this is going to drop my insurance rates. Could I be able to afford a new car now?
Why not do your shopping before your next heart attack ? What's the point in surviving a heart attack only to have another one when you get the bill ?
If they keep your heart attack as secret as they keep their prices no one will even know you're gone !!!
And I'm sure the Trump haters will somehow try to turn this around into a negative.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ponderosa
Oh, boy! I am going to shop around next time I have a heart attack. And I can't wait to see how much this is going to drop my insurance rates. Could I be able to afford a new car now?
That really did not take long..
Really, is TDS that bad that even when good things occur one must have to pull a useless info from ones dark areas. Most hospitalizations are not emergencies like heart attacks. They are elective procedures. And even for emergencies like strokes and heart attacks one can easily find out which hospitals do better for the same amount paid by your insurer. And you can find which hospital is being paid more by your insurer for the same code like a simple blood test.
Over time the low cost better outcome hospitals will remain and others will wither and fall. If one does not like to use such info because they are so much against anything the president does, that is their choice. But others sure can apply them and benefit monetarily.
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