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The article does not mention that money _can_ buy you health _care_. Given this, there should be market opportunity for a company which courts the supposed legi

• marshray 16y ago
  Not in any fair-market sort of way. The price of prescription meds, tests, and procedures is "negotiated" between pharmacies, providers, and insurance companies. The Dr. bills "X" and the insurance company comes back with "X/2". The Dr. may try to collect the difference from you, but they usually don't. If you aren't paying with insurance, you have to pay many times higher prices than an insurance company would for the same treatment. Last I heard 80% of the market did have some type of coverage. Of the remaining 20%, many of them simply can't pay their emergency room bills. So if you have a decent income and don't have insurance, you are a very small minority with no bargaining power. In other words, no, you are not able to purchase health care in any sort of functioning market.
  • Uhhrrr 16y ago
    Which is to say, you can indeed purchase health care. You might not get the volume discount that Blue Cross et al do, but you can buy it. And, in practice, if you tell the provider that you can only pay X, it is quite possible that they will prefer getting X to getting 0.