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Price transparency was one of the great accomplishments of the Trump administration. It's a good first step, but there remains a lot to be done to bring some sa

Price transparency was one of the great accomplishments of the Trump administration. It's a good first step, but there remains a lot to be done to bring some sanity to US medical pricing. Next step is to pass a law making it illegal to charge different patients differing prices for the same service.

ikerdanzel 5y ago
At this point I have to say American that voted Dems old fool deserve what they getting or coming. Just like when voted Barry that spike up the insurance and medical bills. Already American got beaten in Agfhan. Wait and see a repeat of 911 (922?) now that those goat herders know American can be easily beaten simply by dragging it. Oh yeah, blame a President that did good for country back then. I am betting next 911 is somewhere on the westcoast.
lostlogin 5y ago
> making it illegal to charge different patients differing prices for the same service. If a workplace or insurer says to a hospital “if all these people come for a checkup, what can you do in pricing?” Is that something that should be blocked?
- cosmotic 5y ago
  Yes. What if your auto insurance company went to Ford and struck a deal, then you went to Ford to get a car and they said 'we don't know the price until you submit a claim'; you buy a car and submit a claim. It turns out your insurance company did a pretty lousy job negotiating and now you're stuck with the bill without any recourse. Ford makes out with a ton of money, so does your insurance company, and you lose.
- mandevil 5y ago
  If they were actually doing that, great! Unfortunately, as TFA clearly demonstrates, they are doing a crappy job of this sort of negotiations, because their profits are generally a % of total medical spend: more medical spend, more gross profit! So why would you want to limit it? Hence the fact that, as the article documents, people routinely are getting charged more with insurance than the cash price they would be charged with no insurance. (If you tried to pay the cash price then it doesn't count against your deductible, so it would be rare to do that.) There was a serious effort by health insurance to restrain medical spending with the HMO/limited medical network era of the early to mid-1990's, which led to a massive pushback from people who hated having to change doctors all the time. In large part because they were so widely hated that no one has tried to revive them (modern HMO's are not nearly as limited in networks) they also were the one period in the last 40 years when medical cost growth was held down.

ikerdanzel 5y ago

At this point I have to say American that voted Dems old fool deserve what they getting or coming. Just like when voted Barry that spike up the insurance and medical bills. Already American got beaten in Agfhan. Wait and see a repeat of 911 (922?) now that those goat herders know American can be easily beaten simply by dragging it. Oh yeah, blame a President that did good for country back then. I am betting next 911 is somewhere on the westcoast.

lostlogin 5y ago

> making it illegal to charge different patients differing prices for the same service. If a workplace or insurer says to a hospital “if all these people come for a checkup, what can you do in pricing?” Is that something that should be blocked?

cosmotic 5y ago
Yes. What if your auto insurance company went to Ford and struck a deal, then you went to Ford to get a car and they said 'we don't know the price until you submit a claim'; you buy a car and submit a claim. It turns out your insurance company did a pretty lousy job negotiating and now you're stuck with the bill without any recourse. Ford makes out with a ton of money, so does your insurance company, and you lose.
mandevil 5y ago
If they were actually doing that, great! Unfortunately, as TFA clearly demonstrates, they are doing a crappy job of this sort of negotiations, because their profits are generally a % of total medical spend: more medical spend, more gross profit! So why would you want to limit it? Hence the fact that, as the article documents, people routinely are getting charged more with insurance than the cash price they would be charged with no insurance. (If you tried to pay the cash price then it doesn't count against your deductible, so it would be rare to do that.) There was a serious effort by health insurance to restrain medical spending with the HMO/limited medical network era of the early to mid-1990's, which led to a massive pushback from people who hated having to change doctors all the time. In large part because they were so widely hated that no one has tried to revive them (modern HMO's are not nearly as limited in networks) they also were the one period in the last 40 years when medical cost growth was held down.