General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The only way to control soaring healthcare costs is to have single payer [View all]Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)You said it wasn't the insurance company charging a hundred thousand dollars for your knees, but the doctor and the hospital. This is fundamentally incorrect. Your insurance company absolutely did set the cost.
Insurance is almost certainly a part of the problem, and here's why:
There are procedures that reimburse high, and procedures that reimburse low. Hospitals and doctors' offices are able to provide low-reimbursement services because they redirect money generated from high-reimbursement services to cover the losses. This has two implications: first, that lowering reimbursement rates across board will make certain procedures cost-prohibitive and thus less available for people who need them; and second, doctors and hospitals are incentivized to prescribe high-reimbursement services as a means of keeping certain divisions afloat.
The system doesn't work because it is inefficient, and insurance companies play a significant part in that.