AUTHOR SAYS:
The most important reason is #6. The primary purpose of any healthcare system is to provide timely medical care — when it’s needed, not when it is convenient or financially optimal. Between the cost of regulation diverting dollars from care and the gamesmanship employed by third parties, price transparency will drive access to care down. That is the worst outcome of all.
If buyers (patients) and sellers (providers) could interact directly rather than having third parties disconnecting them and making all financial and medical decisions, price transparency would work, just the way it works for cell phones and dry-cleaning services. When buyers spend their own money and sellers set prices in competition with other sellers for buyers’ dollars, the magic of the marketplace will restore health care to low prices, high quality, and rapid service.
I prefer a system of Medicare pricing multipliers.
Instead of a thick chargemaster, one number per provider.
If Medicare would pay a hospital $12,000 for something and the hospital posted a 1.5 multiplier, the non-federal program patient charge would be $18,000.
Most (~97%) French small medical practices accept the French standard tariff.
What will fix Health Care is the total destruction of the Health Insurance and Medical Complex Cartels by use of Sherman Anti-Trust and Wright-Patman along with the RICO statues. That could bring cost down a staggering 80 to 90%, move Health Care cost back to about 5% GDP from 20% of GDP as it is now.
We then could solve the Debt and other budget problems. But it will never happen because the whole of D.C. is bought and paid for.
People are only concerned with two things: can I get medical care, and will insurance cover it. That’s why we will end up with single payer, with all of its drawbacks. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is that big medcare (hospital conglomerates), big insurance, and big pharma fund everyone in Congress except Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul.
Price transparency is important and vital, especially in getting it to reflect actual pricing. But the author is correct in that it is not the only thing needed.
The Healing Art had been kicked half to death by its own practitioners over decades, what with turning the profession over to first the businessmen and then failing there to the politicians. That was BEFORE Fauci put a dagger in its heart. May he Rot In Hell.
“You can only really be heart by the one you love.”
This article is BS. My physician tried to find out prices of several common procedures and our common megalo-carrier health group just gave him the runaround. Establish a transparent market and the prices of everything health care will tumble. Doubt this? Look at pricing (if you can find it) for hospital services for elective cosmetic procedures. Massively ‘discounted’.
When I needed my broken hip fixed I was not price shopping. I wanted the best doc available
People don’t care what the price is...they just want to know what the co-pay/out of pocket is. And don’t forget the govt. is funding 70% of “healthcare”...would have to cut them out in addition to insurance cos.. The only real fix would be a roll back to “fee/cash for service” (like the Whole Foods CEO was doing before Amazon bought them....give the employee cash for healthcare and let them shop around) then slowly bring old school (1950’s/60’s) group insurance back in (No HMO’s or PPo’s). Not going to happen tho. the Feds/politicians are moving the other way....socialized medicine....since they are already over 1/2 way there (Obamacare and Medicaid/Medicare).
P!$$ on this doctor's thesis. He's probably right that revealing the prices for medical procedures won't cure the health care pricing issues we face today, but from my experience, any provider who doesn't want to tell you in advance what the price is can be confidently thought a thief.
The entire medical science community has lost credibility after the covid scamdemic and they made billions. Cost goes down significantly when common sense is used but that’s not taught in any higher learning facility.
Check out the author’s bio.
https://www.deanewaldman.com/phone/dr.-waldman-s-bio.html
He’s willing for the shilling.
Government socialized healthcare gives government a perverse incentive to ensure we don’t live to require Government Socialized Healthcare. Vaccines are a government solution to the problem.