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Originally Posted by
elganned
In a third-party-pays system such as we currently have [[health insurance), nobody has accountability or incentive to contain costs.
I agree with you that the only way to truly bring prices down would be to make patients pay the entire cost out of pocket. Obviously, it can't be done due to catastrophic illnesses. But the more price conscious we can make the consumer the better.
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-The patient has no such incentive, because he/she doesn't pay directly.
Not completely true. People still have co-pays and deductibles. They also may not have complete medical coverage [[dental, vision, prescriptions). And some pay for their own insurance. People without insurance who still pay for their own health care are the ones who are most price conscious.
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-The provider has no such incentive, since increasing prices means increasing income.
And the reason they can do this is because they know that the someone other than the customer [[either insurance or the government) is going to pay.
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-The insurance industry has no such incentive, since they can neutralize any price increases through higher premiums, higher co-pays, or curtailed coverage.
If they could lower their costs, I'm sure they would. They don't profit by having high health care costs. And you are right, the costs are ultimately passed on to the customer, so why not make the consumer more aware of the costs that they will ultimately end up paying.
People seem to think that as long as insurance is paying for it, or as long as the government is paying for it, that they [[the consumer) isn't paying for it. WRONG!
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Nobody's minding the till.
And who will mind it if the government is running it? Who is minding the federal budget [[$12,000,000,000,000 debt and counting) now?
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Simply knowing how much someone else is spending on your behalf does not act as an incentive for you to seek cheaper alternatives. Why should I be concerned with how much my boss is paying if it doesn't impact me?
Because it does impact you. If your employer wasn't spending so much on health insurance, they could pay you more. How much is your employer actually paying for your health insurance? I don't know.
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The key element in this equation, however, is that elective surgery is discretionary; when you've suffered an accident or illness, you aren't really in a position to say, "Well, I'll put that off for the moment. Maybe I'll be able to afford stitches [[or antibiotics) next week." Apples and oranges, Retroit.
That is certainly true. But there are many costs we can control. Also, you can lower the cost of a procedures that are used for both emergencies and non-emergencies.