Liberals Have Health Care Epiphany Over Third Party Payer System

Americans have read or experienced a myriad of healthcare horror stories since the implementation of Obamacare.  It is obvious that there is a correlation between higher cost and government mandates and regulations.  This is basic economics.  Common sense should dictate when a customer/patient takes an active role in the cost/benefit analysis when conferring with his doctor, health care cost are reduced.  This shouldn't be a surprise.

The Boston Globe published an article detailing one woman’s frustration that led to an epiphany.  Here is an excerpt:

When Americans rely on a third party — private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid — to pay most of their medical bills, they forfeit their power as consumers. Our ill-conceived system of subsidized health plans provided by employers and taxpayer-funded “free” treatment through the government ends up stripping patients of their economic clout. Doctors and hospitals have little incentive to compete by lowering prices, because patients rarely bother to ask about prices. By and large, health care providers in the United States do most of their negotiating with insurers or the government. After all, they’re the ones paying the piper.

It’s only when medical services aren’t reimbursed by a third party — think of Lasik eye surgery or veterinary care or the growing number of direct-pay “concierge” practices that don’t accept health insurance — that the consumer is king. When providers are paid directly by customers, transactions are transparent, prices fall, choices proliferate, and consumer convenience becomes a priority. Bills reflect actual prices, not inscrutable codes and deductibles and “adjustments” negotiated way over patients’ heads.

 

Is it possible that liberals are waking up to this fraud?  They should.  We’ve only being carping about this for years.

Source:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/23/let-patient-pay-piper-and-price-health-care-will-fall/QxVblSxYITIGW5EkpMXy3K/story.html