[Alberta's Child]

The flip side of this is that there’s a reason why the only medical procedures that decline in cost over time have been the ones that insurers don’t cover. It’s amazing how economical medical procedures get when they are discretionary and people pay for them out of their own pockets. I’ll cite laser eye surgery and cosmetic surgery as two examples of this.

[George from New England]

We just ran into a similar case.

Knee Surgeon Doctor’s staff tells us Surgery Center does not accept our Devoted PPO Medicare Plan. Schedules us at local hospital for surgery with higher co-pay.

Devoted says the facility is in-network.

Seems like Doctor is trying to force us (some patients) to use hospital as there is higher demand for out patient places.

But Doctor’s office staff lying to us to achieve a better schedule for the Doctor is unethical.

[TexasKamaAina]

The flip side of this is that there’s a reason why the only medical procedures that decline in cost over time have been the ones that insurers don’t cover. It’s amazing how economical medical procedures get when they are discretionary and people pay for them out of their own pockets. I’ll cite laser eye surgery and cosmetic surgery as two examples of this.

You are so right. This falls into the "no solutions, only tradeoffs" principle (Thomas Sowell). Our current system sucks, but I'm afraid people seeking a perfect "solution" will bring about something even worse.