I’m distrustful of Time magazine in general, but some of the examples of overcharging they gave were pretty shocking. For some reason, I also got the impression that non-profit hospitals are a scam. Maybe some of the medical experts could weigh in.
I’m no expert. But I’ve been working in hospitals since 1975.
I was a CFO for many years and have spent the last 10 years as a CEO of a hospital in a large not for profit system.
I don’t see the health care system collapsing, but it will deteriorate.
It already has deteriorated. We had the greatest healthcare delivery system in the history of the world. Now an incredible amount of what we used to reinvest in infrastructure, clinical equipment, education and basic patient care goes toward the heavy administrative costs necessitated by mandated
compliance with overwhelming state and federal regulations. Articles like those in Time and individual anecdotes whip the public into a frenzy and they buy into the need for this ridiculous over regulated situation.
Healthcare as we know it will never be the same, not because of the docs and those who are operating the hospitals but because of the government.
“I’m distrustful of Time magazine in general, but some of the examples of overcharging they gave were pretty shocking. For some reason, I also got the impression that non-profit hospitals are a scam. Maybe some of the medical experts could weigh in.”
I’m not an expert, but I’m also distrustful of Time magazine… :)
Remember back around 2006, the “real estate bubble”?
Remember how in places like California, the “market price” of real estate became ridiculously inflated (with run-down houses the size of a 2-car garage selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
Remember how the “prices” of real estate surged to where they had no correlation to the _value_ of same?
I think we’re seeing the culmination of something similar in the healthcare “market”.
That is to say, the actual charges for procedures, rooms, etc. seem to have “separated from” any connection to the _actual cost_ of providing same.
This has been caused by the corrupting influence of 3rd-party medical insurance along with increasing government regulation, and exacerbated by the development of new technologies and introduction of new equipment.
I guess they call this “cost shifting”, but the “shift” is actually a full separation (from reality).
And the “medical cost bubble” keeps inflating.
Sometimes I think the only way this can be “fixed” is by outlawing the concept of “medical insurance” and banning any kind of medical payment other than “fee for service” — that is, the only payment the medical provider (doctor) can receive is directly from the patient (NOT from any insurance company or 3rd-party payer).
That is to say, if you need medical care, YOU pay. No pay, no care. Or, if there is care, the bills are sent to YOU, not to the insurance company.
This doesn’t mean the patient couldn’t buy insurance coverage to protect him/herself. But the insurance company should only be allowed to re-imburse the patient AFTER the patient has paid the healthcare provider.
People are going to reply, “if that were the case, few would be able to pay for their medical care and many would suffer and die”.
I would respond, “what if no one could pay for a hospital bed @ $3,000 a day?” Either the hospitals would have a lot of empty beds (and soon go out of business), or, they might consider dropping their prices to where the market would prevail (and people could again afford to pay).
Is that not “the free market” at work?