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I've often thought this could be solved by requiring a doctor to carry "estimate" insurance. The patient's bill would be the quoted price and the doctor's insur

I've often thought this could be solved by requiring a doctor to carry "estimate" insurance. The patient's bill would be the quoted price and the doctor's insurance would cover any complications leading to additional costs. This would have the additional benefit of increasing the costs of doctors with frequent complications. This would only work for immediate complications from surgery (i.e., less likely to be impacted by patient compliance).

cptskippy 9y ago
It might also lead to doctors "missing" complications to avoid insurance premium increases. Complications during surgery aren't necessarily caused by the surgeon or known ahead of time. The same is true of other things like home renovation where "we won't know until we open her up" is a common enough phrase. Case in point, we want to remodel a bathroom that has a 7ft ceiling and my wife wants the ceiling raised to match all of the others. Why is it 7ft instead of 8ft? Can it be raised? Without significant cost? We won't know until we get in there.