The key to lower healthcare costs is high-deductible health insurance plans combined with websites like this one--> (click here). The cost-sharing aspects of high-deductible health insurance plans like those attached to healthcare savings accounts (HSA) encourage patients to shop around for the best care at the best price for non-emergency care.
The website above shines a light on certain hospitals and doctors that charge more than twice what similar hospitals and doctors charge for similar care. I'd like to see the website above add patient reviews. Reviews combined with clear pricing would do for healthcare costs what Amazon has done for almost everything else.
It's incredible to think, most of us put much more research effort into buying a new car, TV, vacation spot, or even a small power tool than we do choosing a doctor or hospital for hip replacement or hernia repair.
Ron, what about the constrained supplies medicine, physicians, and hospitals? As you know, when there are inflated prices, competitors will enter the market. However, the United States has barriers to entry to stop this natural process, against immigrant physicians, imported medicines, and new hospitals.
ReplyDeleteFurther, people disproportionately pay for medical care through insurance — as opposed to only for emergencies, as you support — because of the tax break for insurance as part of employment. Removing this tax break would remove medical insurance as some sort of employment obligation; it should not be anyway. People purchasing insurance on their own would free up the market enormously for more direct payments, rather than insurance payments, and then they'd have a greater incentive to shop around for better prices.