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> Honestly, the easiest way to fix it is to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid, and social security or force everyone to pay 100% as opposed to negotiating lower rat

by snsr 10y ago

> Honestly, the easiest way to fix it is to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid, and social security or force everyone to pay 100% as opposed to negotiating lower rates. Bullshit. This isn't an easy problem, and you're casually dismissing systems that support millions of people.

username3 10y ago
> All of the state options pay only ~10% of what they are billed no matter how large the bill (there is also usually a cap). This forces hospitals to charge exorbitant prices. True or false?
lbotos 10y ago
I think the point was if everyone had to pay "full price" the full price would be lower, but right now the prices are inflated so 10% of the price is what they actually hoped to make.
lettergram 10y ago
Supports millions of people in what way? I "casually" wrote off millions a dollars a day in the billing office for people who didn't have insurance. I "casually" wrote off 90% of people's bills who were state funded. The only people we actually were forced to try and collect on were private companies and people making over $X per year. I have no idea how much experience you have with this stuff, but the unfairness comes from the fact doctors/hospitals can effectively charge outrageous prices, knowing they will only make a percentage. On the state payments, they lose money and on the private insurance companies, wealthy and naive honest people they will make more. They have to charge that much to make up for the difference caused by the state options, and people who never pay. Just like any system with a (semi)guaranteed payment (college tuition, healthcare, government contracts, minimum wage, etc.) Prices will inflate capturing the free market rate + the guaranteed amount. If you want to fix that, you have to force deflation by forcing everyone to pay equally. You can do that by removing the guaranteed payment and create competition. Seriously, this is econ 101... Also, antibiotics, insulin, and many of the other standard drugs doctors prescribe could essentially be free for everyone for half the cost of Medicare. Insurance companies only pay like 10% on the dollar for that stuff. So I would much rather "support" everyone by providing the basics, and having the rest be a free market. It would solve probably 80% of the issues with the current healthcare system.

by snsr 10y ago

username3 10y ago

> All of the state options pay only ~10% of what they are billed no matter how large the bill (there is also usually a cap). This forces hospitals to charge exorbitant prices. True or false?

lbotos 10y ago

I think the point was if everyone had to pay "full price" the full price would be lower, but right now the prices are inflated so 10% of the price is what they actually hoped to make.

lettergram 10y ago

Supports millions of people in what way? I "casually" wrote off millions a dollars a day in the billing office for people who didn't have insurance. I "casually" wrote off 90% of people's bills who were state funded. The only people we actually were forced to try and collect on were private companies and people making over $X per year. I have no idea how much experience you have with this stuff, but the unfairness comes from the fact doctors/hospitals can effectively charge outrageous prices, knowing they will only make a percentage. On the state payments, they lose money and on the private insurance companies, wealthy and naive honest people they will make more. They have to charge that much to make up for the difference caused by the state options, and people who never pay. Just like any system with a (semi)guaranteed payment (college tuition, healthcare, government contracts, minimum wage, etc.) Prices will inflate capturing the free market rate + the guaranteed amount. If you want to fix that, you have to force deflation by forcing everyone to pay equally. You can do that by removing the guaranteed payment and create competition. Seriously, this is econ 101... Also, antibiotics, insulin, and many of the other standard drugs doctors prescribe could essentially be free for everyone for half the cost of Medicare. Insurance companies only pay like 10% on the dollar for that stuff. So I would much rather "support" everyone by providing the basics, and having the rest be a free market. It would solve probably 80% of the issues with the current healthcare system.