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I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but a major problem is that the US healthcare system’s function (or lack thereof) is based on price discrimination e.g. th

by cascom 8y ago

I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but a major problem is that the US healthcare system’s function (or lack thereof) is based on price discrimination e.g. the list price for a doctor visit might be $150, the doctor gets reimbursed $15 for a Medicaid patient, $60 for a Medicare patient, $90 for privately insured patient, and a $135 for a cash pay patient. It’s a lot like college tuition - there is a sticker price - but very few student’s actually “pay” the sticker amount, or the same price for that matter At the end of the day the core problem is that price transparency and price discrimination are at odds with each other...people don’t like being told they have to pay more for something because of “who they are”

Karishma1234 8y ago
Yes. The price discovery is near impossible when prices are not so upfront.
AnthonyMouse 8y ago
> I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but a major problem is that the US healthcare system’s function (or lack thereof) is based on price discrimination e.g. the list price for a doctor visit might be $150, the doctor gets reimbursed $15 for a Medicaid patient, $60 for a Medicare patient, $90 for privately insured patient, and a $135 for a cash pay patient. But all of this price discrimination is bad -- it's hurting everybody. Medicaid and Medicare patients paying less causes more doctors to not accept them. Privately insured and uninsured patients paying more imposes costs on working people and small businesses who have to subsidize a government program, not through taxes in proportion to their revenue or wealth, but through higher insurance premiums in proportion to their number of employees regardless of how much the employees make. Eliminating that sort of price discrimination would solve a significant portion of the problem by itself, by eliminating that cross-subsidy and requiring government benefits to be funded overly and by the people who can afford to pay rather than covertly through higher private insurance premiums on people who can't.
the_mitsuhiko 8y ago
I think the reason meds are expensive are completely different why doctors or hospitals are expensive in the states. While all of those things happen because the system has no desire to be cheap and free market forces do not happen they are all different and need to be fixed individually.

by cascom 8y ago

Karishma1234 8y ago

Yes. The price discovery is near impossible when prices are not so upfront.

AnthonyMouse 8y ago

> I don’t disagree with your sentiment, but a major problem is that the US healthcare system’s function (or lack thereof) is based on price discrimination e.g. the list price for a doctor visit might be $150, the doctor gets reimbursed $15 for a Medicaid patient, $60 for a Medicare patient, $90 for privately insured patient, and a $135 for a cash pay patient. But all of this price discrimination is bad -- it's hurting everybody. Medicaid and Medicare patients paying less causes more doctors to not accept them. Privately insured and uninsured patients paying more imposes costs on working people and small businesses who have to subsidize a government program, not through taxes in proportion to their revenue or wealth, but through higher insurance premiums in proportion to their number of employees regardless of how much the employees make. Eliminating that sort of price discrimination would solve a significant portion of the problem by itself, by eliminating that cross-subsidy and requiring government benefits to be funded overly and by the people who can afford to pay rather than covertly through higher private insurance premiums on people who can't.

the_mitsuhiko 8y ago

I think the reason meds are expensive are completely different why doctors or hospitals are expensive in the states. While all of those things happen because the system has no desire to be cheap and free market forces do not happen they are all different and need to be fixed individually.