People have a very skewed view of how hospitals operate.
Ask them how much the government pays for that new cat scan machine? How much does the government pay for administrative services, the business office, collections, that replacement wing ordered by the government due to new earthquake standards.
In fact the government does provide some funds for certain projects, but the windows are narrow, and the funds are nowhere near payments in full.
What you’ll get is some response talking about $5.00 dollars per aspirin tablet.
I wonder how many people could run their household reasonably if the government demanded they spend $10,000 dollars within six months, or loose the $2,500 dollars the government was willing to pay to help, otherwise you’d have to pay it all, and possibly face fines as well.
That’s what hospitals face all the time.
People hear the word hospital and think big oil. These are costs that are out of their hands, and they think they’re being gamed. Sometimes they may be, but generally they aren’t.
Oh my a voice of knowledgeable reason:)!!
Let’s not forget the cost of government regulations which do nothing to help the clinical aspect of patient care (HIPAA is coming to mind)
Or how about the cost to the hospital of subjecting themselves to CMS audits in order to receive the monies from the government? This of course leads to more ridiculous and nonsensical changes to clinical delivery, or risk losing all back payments, because the fat and old auditor had a hair on that day.
I believe people think that the US healthcare system has been run as a capitalist system. It’s been socialized for as long as I’ve been in the field.
There is fraud and abuse within the healthcare system but is significantly less than the fraud and abuse of many systems and definitely less than our government.