Healthcare is an important issue for us- as you as you will know from reading other posts my friend and blogging partner Truth Seeker- was born with 4 forms of Congenital heart defects so the importance of affordable healthcare is not lost on us. On the build up to Obamacare- the supporters were quite fond of stating how much faster medical expenses have grown compared the the ecconomy as a whole- I believe some figures were saying as much as 10 times as much as the general rate of inflation.
This is an issue that must be fixed in order to determine how to do that we must ask the simple question how did we get in this mess?
The first clue might be found with the Oklahoma surgical center this is a clinic that offers up front pricing and claims that other clinics charge several times more than they do- on their webpage they like to point to operations where their total cost was less than the co-pay at other clinics.
Their founder claims in his blog that they are the exception instead of the rule because the current US healthcare system is a scam filled mess that that hurt consumers.
The first being the Certificate of Needs laws which- used to exist at the federal level but now exist at the state level in all but 14 states- which are built around the notion that limiting the number of clinics providing a service would some how limit the prices. Their supporters would claim that this is because the medical industry for some reason is different than the rest of the ecconomy and is exempt from basic laws of economics .
Then we have programs like Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Payments which was set up to reimburse healthcare providers that were losing money treating uninsured and patients. The problem according to Dr. Keith Smith- in his videos title the $100 aspirin is that the program has institutionalized abuse as hospital might jack up a bill by by 100000% as they know people would not be able to pay- then claim a loss and collect 5% of the bill which would be 500% more than they should have charged in the first place. The problem is not solved by more insurance due to claims repricing programs where an insurance company will get a bill negotiate it down then charge a claims repricing fee based on the percent they claim to have saved the policy holder. These videos paint an image where hospitals are not struggling due to giving away free care but rolling around in cash because they gouge the public with the DSH program and will fight any plan to either end or reform the program in a cost saving manner tooth an nail.
Any healthcare reform needs to favor a free market approach if you were to reform the DSH program- the easiest part of any reform might be putting a limit on what you will pay for some medicine- for example you can buy a bottle of aspirin 500 tablets for $3.60 at Walmart there is no reason for a hospital to believe they can get buy with charging $5 for a single pill. The harder part would be to determine a DSH reform where you have hospitals competing and driving down prices to a market clearing level which is exactly what I would expect to happen if the program was ended.
While there are some people who are battling horrible conditions and should get help for the medical battles and I will do what I can for them- but these people should be the exception and not the rule- and the Oklahoma surgical clinic does provide some clues on how to improve the medical system.
No comments:
Post a Comment