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Medicare pricing structure are heavily subsidized [indirectly] by commercial insurance plans -- this is one of the reason many providers hate taking Medicare pa
by shanusmagnus 10y ago
Medicare pricing structure are heavily subsidized [indirectly] by commercial insurance plans -- this is one of the reason many providers hate taking Medicare patients. If the govt. just gave people vouchers and the Medicare system dissolved, those people would receive much less care (measured in dollars of care consumed per dollar of insurance purchased.)
That might be a good idea. In fact, it is very likely a good idea, for some global notion of 'good.' But people on Medicare would be, shall we say, vocal in their complaint.
- ars 10y agoThat would have other benefits. The reason health insurance in the US is so expensive and complicated is exactly because of how commercial plans fund medicare. If we stopped doing that hospitals could publish actual prices for procedures - same price for everybody, insurance or not. Then people could actually shop around and healthcare costs would drop. But today prices have to be secret and impossible to understand or the way commercial plans fund medicare would collapse.
- shanusmagnus 10y agoThe expense and complication is due to many, many more factors than how commercial plans fund Medicare. Medicare could disappear entirely and the price transparency you describe would not change one iota. They are largely orthogonal issues.