“It is absurd to address the spending side aka keep all of the goodies until the cost side is addressed. No plan, not current ACA, nor Ryancare I, nor Ryancare II, nor pre-AC”
If President Trump were to order the Department of Justice to go after those players in the medical industry who are in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Trump would not only largely solve this problem, he would also be one of the biggest heroes imaginable. After that, tinkering with how insurance is delivered and what is to be covered would be a relatively minor footnote.
“In any other industry (except perhaps the airline industry), when two people are charged a different price for the exact same product or service, the federal government comes in and charges somebody with antitrust violations. “. The more likely scenario for anti-trust is charging the exact same prices. Differing prices show lack of collusion.
Prices are being driven by government regulation and policies. Deregulate healthcare and prices will drop. Anti-trust enforcement is just more government nonsense used in an attempt to fix prior government nonsense. It’s hard to find true monopoly pricing power in a free market.
I know the term free market infuriates many here on Free Republic.
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“It is absurd to address the spending side aka keep all of the goodies until the cost side is addressed. No plan, not current ACA, nor Ryancare I, nor Ryancare II, nor pre-AC”
What everyone has to realize is that the costs of which you speak are not the cost of insurance. They are the cost of the underlying goods and services that make up our medical care system, and which the insurance is there to cover. It is the cost of these goods and services that is wildly out of control, with insurance merely following the trend. They are out of control because virtually the entire industry is massively in violation of our antitrust laws. In any other industry (except perhaps the airline industry), when two people are charged a different price for the exact same product or service, the federal government comes in and charges somebody with antitrust violations. Not so in the medical industry, resulting in the gigantic mess that we are in now. President Trump does not need to get Congressional approval to fix this problem. He merely has to tell Jeff sessions to prosecute a few dozen drug companies, hospitals, medical supply companies and doctors. Make an example of a few of them, and medical prices will come down considerably and quickly. There is no reason, for example, why an MRI costs $200 in Japan and several thousand dollars here in the United States. The reason for this is not that Japan is using inferior technology, but that Japan does not allow the owners of MRI machines to gouge it’s consumers. Similarly, there is no good reason why my daughter’s fairly routine knee surgery, combined with a simple 2 day hospital stay with no complications, cost $128,000. If you ask me, that hospital was no better than the mafia.
If President Trump were to order the Department of Justice to go after those players in the medical industry who are in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Trump would not only largely solve this problem, he would also be one of the biggest heroes imaginable. After that, tinkering with how insurance is delivered and what is to be covered would be a relatively minor footnote.
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Biggest problem is admitting there is a problem. Unfort., nobody has pointed out GOVT is that problem.
Anti-trust was touched upon, but the truth that no monopoly can exist w/o the assistance of govt is also true.
True, now. MRIs may only truly cost $200, but when 1st developed? The converse of the above is the iron fist of govt vs. competition, research and innovation, driving up the costs before even hitting the streets. Drugs that exist in Europe for 40yrs+ can’t be sold here, while trial lawyers make millions from those the FDA\etc. HAVE ‘approved’.
Lastly, with wanting to eat the cake too, “reforming Obamacare along conservative lines by employing reconciliation” is another fallacy. Sad. If that’s what ‘conservatism’ has come to (not Fascism when *we* do it), it’s no wonder the country is in the bind it is...
Insurance cost is one of the absurd costs due to corporatist government created subsidies to monopoly insurance companies.
Medi-share and Direct Provider are competitive alternatives to insurance. But Ryancare chose winners and losers limited to 3 or 4 insurance companies.
Government regulation (Slavitt type regulation) is a major reason for high overhead cost of insurance ... and high overhead cost of providers.
Tort reform is another area to be addressed.
Above all, every provider and every insurance company should publish on websites all pricing information so everyone has access to the information. That means every service and product must effectively be priced in multiples of $1 and $10 and $100 and $1,000 and not have some things at $541 and other things at $543 and others at $547. Fewer price points to make it simpler for the consumer. It means no complex discounts and surcharges and adjustments.