The Maryland Hospital Rate Commission may well be doing a good job. I take your word that this is so. It’s a little surprising for that state, but certainly possible if it is staffed by honest and competent people operating within their charter.
But, the history of price controls is not a good one. While there are examples of short term successes, they are almost always a disaster over the long term. The liberals do love this approach and are quick to cite the examples of success as justification to applying price controls to more and more of the economy. With Obamacare, all of the health care system will fall under federal government oversight and manipulation and that will include the Maryland Hospital Rate Commission, so Obamacare will have something to do with it in the near future.
What will kill health care in this country is “population health management. “
Even the name is scary. Get used to it, it’s coming soon to a place near you.
I’m in my sixties, I’ve watched this slow motion train wreck that we call health care happening since the onset of Medicare and Medicaid.
I see hospital rates increasing by 1 or 2 % per year, doctors getting no fee increases, but health insurance premiums climb at double digit rates.
The docs and the hospitals aren’t the cause of this crisis.