Posted on 01/22/2016 7:28:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Ask anyone why health costs are so high, and one of the answers is likely to be "technology." But why does technology add costs in health care when it lowers costs everywhere else?
'Why isn't there an Uber of health care?" That's the question that Manhattan Institute health care expert Avik Roy asks in the opening of a must-read paper, "Health Care 2.0: Ushering In Medicine's Digital Revolution."
"Why can't we deploy, in health care, the same forces that are improving quality and lowering costs in virtually every other sector of the economy?"
These are questions that so-called health care experts rarely ask. Instead, they complain about how MRIs are expensive and how breakthrough drugs cost too much and how more government intervention is needed to keep it all in check.
Here's a typical explanation: "Medical advances can help us get well, avoid disease and delay death, but they also drive up spending," says an NPR report. "Patients and doctors often demand the newest treatments, even if there is little or no evidence that they are better."
In any other context, such a statement would be ludicrous. Why would any consumer demand a more expensive product if they had no idea whether it would work?
Roy correctly points to a huge, if largely unrecognized, problem in health care — the rise of third-party payments. The reason patients demand the latest technology, no matter the cost, is that they aren't paying the bills — an insurance company or the government is.
The clearest trend in health care is that steady increase in third-party payments. Government data show that in 1960, insurers and governments paid about half the nation's health care bills. Today, that figure is 89%. By 2024, it's expected to hit 90%.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Get back to me when an Uber passenger can sue a driver for millions in driving malpractice.
Cause Humana and BCBS are even more cutthroat than Yellow Cab and it’s unions when it comes to protecting their turf.
Government + health care = votes of the FSA
That is why.
It might be "clear" but it is not Clearest.
The clearest trend in health care is national government meddling.
That is the common thread in all the rising costs over the last 50 years. All the laws, regulations, on people (taxes), on doctors, on patients, on hospitals, on medical companies, and 0'care.
Or when the Uber fare is subsidized and the drivers have to contend with mountains of paperwork.
I’m starting an Uber for breast exams. I call it Boober.
who says technology lowers costs?
‘Cause of an incestuous bond between the medical side and the political side. $$$$$$$$$!
Post of the day!
In other words... Big Insurance’s payoffs to The scum in DC and middle class paying for the gib me dats!!!!
LOL!
RE: Get back to me when an Uber passenger can sue a driver for millions in driving malpractice.
I like that insight. Post of the day.
Actual cost comparisons: Uninsured cost for a treatment - $15,000-17,500. Insurance and provider approved settlement - $4500.
This from actual figures I was given for treatments. If you are uninsured, you are on the hook for the $15,000-$17,500. Wife had emergency gaul bladder surgery, cost was almost $40,000 at the time, insurance settlement was $7500. Same ratios for broken arm, etc.
And so much of hospital, doctor office costs are tied to mandated entry (coding, etc), record keeping, documentation. Then there is E&O costs, additional overhead for personnel to manage all the federal mandates.....and so on
“But why does technology add costs in health care when it lowers costs everywhere else?”
Two reasons:
1. Technology probably lowers costs for simple things but technology also produces expensive new tools that we want to use.
2. The medical industry is not interested in lowering medical costs. Competition is missing.
Anyone truly interested in our Health Care/Insurance problems, Karl Deninger NAILS it every time. This is one of Numerous articles he has written
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231032
you just need the existing laws to matter.
Specifically, Robinson-Patman, for openers, although I’ll take the Sherman and Clayton acts too, along with the first sale doctrine that has generally applied to any physical thing sold to anyone.
There are many many more that go in to great detail of the MASSIVE FRAUD!!
Two factors:(oops, three)
Third party payer (Insurance companies, government programs)
Medical Cartel/Union/High Priesthood (AMA), with government collusion.
Almost forgot the LAWYERS! Many/most medical decisions are made by doctors giving very serious consideration to keeping the lawyers at bay.
Mrs. BN & I watched an old episode of NCIS last night. A former Navy Corpsman stopped to help the injured at an auto accident site. One of the three injured died, so the Corpsman was arrested and charged with ‘practicing medicine without a license’. It seems that Army & Air Force medics automatically get “EMT Certification” upon completion of their training. Navy Corpsmen do not.
Free market medicine would soon develop something like an “Angies List” for evaluating a First Aid Kiosk at the front of the local 24 Hr Walmart which is staffed by former Navy Corpsmen or Off-Duty EMT’s.
Free Market, free flow of information, reasonable law to deal with crime.
If you want, choose the AMA certified medical provider. “Look for the Union Label”. If not, go with someone else who is competent as evidenced by many satisfied customers.
"I need a bypass surgery... hoping to keep it to under $100. Willing to travel up to 10 miles, or you can do it at my home".
Concierge medecine might qualify in some ways.
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