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You're completely missing the bigger picture. You may be paying a fixed rate for your care, but if healthcare costs continue to rise unabated then you won't be

You're completely missing the bigger picture. You may be paying a fixed rate for your care, but if healthcare costs continue to rise unabated then you won't be paying $300/month next year, you may be paying $500/month. In addition the mandate to get everyone into the coverage pool plays a factor in helping keep your costs low. If hospitals can charge rates set seemingly at random, and the "customer" has little or no opportunity to understand what the cost of their choices are, or even make a choice of where to go, then the system will likely continue to spiral out of control. And it is out of control. My company, with 50 employees, will paying in excess of $500k for healthcare benefits this year. That doesn't even include the contribution required from the employees. That cost has risen ~12% every year. You are deluded if you see recent attempts to control these costs as only introducing new problems. Something has to be done.

dkhenry 13y ago
No your deluded if you think people will shop around for something that has no direct influence on their finances. Your absolutely correct that ideally everyone would do the "right thing" and make the financially prudent decision that benefits society and shop around for a good price on a procedure. However no one will do that. Most people don't care because like I said it doesn't influence me and even if I did the "right thing" I am bound by both my fellow employees ( via our small pool ) and US tax law ( by medicare and insurance subsidies ) to split the cost of _everyone's_ actions so unless a majority of society gets on board my actions matter little. In effect I will continue to go to the nice hospital for elective surgery because its nice there, ya so what they charge someone else 300% more for the same stuff, the food is better and I get free TV in my room.

dkhenry 13y ago

No your deluded if you think people will shop around for something that has no direct influence on their finances. Your absolutely correct that ideally everyone would do the "right thing" and make the financially prudent decision that benefits society and shop around for a good price on a procedure. However no one will do that. Most people don't care because like I said it doesn't influence me and even if I did the "right thing" I am bound by both my fellow employees ( via our small pool ) and US tax law ( by medicare and insurance subsidies ) to split the cost of _everyone's_ actions so unless a majority of society gets on board my actions matter little. In effect I will continue to go to the nice hospital for elective surgery because its nice there, ya so what they charge someone else 300% more for the same stuff, the food is better and I get free TV in my room.