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If the patient chose to see someone who charged $200 vs $50 would the patient pay a different amount?

• imgabe 7y ago
  Perhaps the insurance would choose an amount to reimburse and the patient could pay the difference if they want to go somewhere more expensive. Isn't that the way most other insurances work? If my homeowner's insurance pays me to repair my house, they don't make me go to an "in-network" contractor. And if that contractor has an "out-of-network" subcontractor I don't suddenly get charged 10x more. If the patient could choose any doctor because they aren't limited to in-network only and the doctors couldn't charge different prices for insurance vs. cash, and if patients actually knew what the prices were beforehand there would be actual competition and downward pressure on prices.
  • vl 7y ago
    > If the patient could choose any doctor because they aren't limited to in-network only and the doctors couldn't charge different prices for insurance vs. cash, and if patients actually knew what the prices were beforehand there would be actual competition and downward pressure on prices. This implies that there are enough doctors. But current reality is that supply is artificially limited and there are not enough doctors.
    • imgabe 7y ago
      If supply is already limited, then surely further limiting it by restricting patients to only "in-network" doctors can't be helping anything.