Not only does the move toward direct payment have the potential to reduce health costs — it could also yield higher-quality care.
Exactly, it doesn’t matter if it’s the government paying medical bills or if it’s an insurance company, prices are driven up. It gets even worse if a third party is paying the insurance premiums. People need to be responsible for their medical decisions and together with their doctors they need to devise the best course of action that they can afford.
This is true. We always paid a lot more attention to our medical bills when we had a traditional indemnity plan versus one of these in network provider plans that we have now - all we pay are co-pays.