4 ms·

I'm not sure I believe "more competition drives medical costs higher".

• ceejayoz 9y ago
  Healthcare competition is, at times, more like Gucci vs. Prada - expensive, intensive tests and treatment make people feel like they got better care, even when the patient just needed the healthcare equivalent of a $20 purse. There are companies all over the US that heavily market entirely unnecessary things like "full body scans", elective surgeries, etc.
• toast0 9y ago
  It's pretty plausible. We don't have price transparency or price competition; generally when a doctor asks a patient to get an expensive test, if insurance covers it and it's not inconvenient, the patient will get it. So, if there are more places to get expensive tests, that's competition, but also is likely to lead to more expensive tests being done. This raises the question of efficacy of the tests for patients who wouldn't have had the test done when there was less access. If spending more for the tests improves health outcomes, that's valuable, and if it saves money on treatment that's even better.