Posted on 10/06/2018 8:33:36 PM PDT by TBP
Whenever one segment of an economy exhibits, year after year, inflation above the general rate, and when there is no constraint on supply, then either a cartel is in operation or there is a lack of price transparency—or both, as is the case with American medical care.
So it is clear that there is something terribly wrong with how health care is financed in our country. And a consensus on how to fix the problem—how to provide Americans the best medicine money can buy for the least amount of money that will buy it—has proved elusive. But the history of American medical care, considered in the light of some simple but ineluctable economic laws, can help point the way. For it turns out that the engines of medical inflation were deeply, and innocently, inserted into the health care system just as the medical revolution began.
Previously, insurance had always been used to protect only against large, unforeseeable losses, and came with a deductible. But the first hospital plans didn’t work that way. Instead of protecting against catastrophe, they paid all costs up to a certain limit. The reason, of course, is that they were instituted not by insurance companies, but by hospitals, and were primarily designed to generate steady demand for hospital services and guarantee a regular cash flow.
The most important thing to do, by far, is to require medical service providers to make public their inclusive prices for all procedures. Most hospitals keep their prices hidden in order to charge more when they can, such as with the uninsured. But some facilities do post their prices. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma, for instance, does so on its website. A knee replacement there will cost you $15,499, a mastectomy $6,505, a rotator cuff repair $8,260.
(Excerpt) Read more at imprimis.hillsdale.edu ...
I hope it stays that way! My wife has gone through most of her endocrine therapy for stage four breast cancer and has only two small areas of activity, one in her liver and one in her humerus. She's been under endocrine therapy for three years now, and I dread her going on chemo. They tried her on one immunosuppressive drug earlier this year and she ended up with a host of bad effects, including pneumonitis that left her hospitalized for several weeks. They took her off it, put her back on the endocrine treatment, and now she's doing remarkably well. You'd never guess she has cancer to look at her.
Did not mention anything about state and federal regulations such as the certificate of public need which prevents anyone from competing on a low cost basis with the hospitals. They use these regulations to keep out competition. As hospitals consolidate they become more or less a monopoly
I hope and pray your Wife continues to improve. It is wonderful that the Endocrine regimen has been so beneficial.
Chemotherapy and Antibody Treatment worked well for me. Had I been afflicted ten years earlier, some of the Drugs I received were not yet available.
We live in amazing times.
My best to you and your Wife.
bmp
The author is probably a shill for the medical industry, perhaps even tainted by pharma dollars.
There are so many glaring details missing from his fawning history on medicine and “hospital insurance” to Medicare - to state nothing of the omission of the elephant in the room (if you read the article it’s patently obvious) - I want my 5 minutes back.
Oh, and not a single citation or reference. It is ironic that he authored the cited book, roundly-cited by reviewers as a cheerleader for big business & the wealthy. Nope, no coincidence at all. /s
Tip: If you read the article, have a towel: He uses lots of lotion. His book is probably worse.
A link showing what the Surgery Center of Oklahoma is all about, in their own words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uPdkhMVdMQ
One of the best parts is when one of the doctors talks about all the administrators, in $1000 suits, that add nothing to medical services provided by the hospital and drive up costs.
They do a comparison, in the video, of identical surgeries. The bill from the Surgery Center is under $60000. Hospital bill is $33,500.
Now, get rid of all the illegals that clog our hospitals, whose costs are made up by you and me, and we might be able to get somewhere.
Another doozy, where the hospital took it upon themselves to figure out a way to open up bed spaces and reduce costs from treating illegals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1dDINSebbw&t=19s
Many thanks!
I disagreed with one point. Flu shots should be covered by insurance as a communicable disease that has the potential to spread rapidly to the whole population. It is not like a scraped knee.
I would add that medical education is so expensive that many doctors have huge debt upon finishing their training. This could be offset by pro-bono care delivered to the poor. Additionally, pro-bono care could be delivered in lieu of taxation on real income. This would ease the burden of treating the poor on society as a whole.
Good article overall.
There is no constraint on supply?
Have you tried to staff a 600 bed hospital 24x7 with nurses and support staff?
There is no problem getting the beds full of people who can’t pay—but getting the funds and staff to treat them is difficult these days.
I recall talking to my Dad the day before he died, “That DNR was a helluva lot easier to sign two years ago, than it would be today.”
A little bit of experience really outweighs a shit load of experience.
Shortcut version of bookmark.
I like, and agree with, your two points.
Thank you, Jane Long.
Typo....My bad.
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