The problem of the US healthcare is much deeper than just the insurance companies. Every single layer of the system is rotten.
While this is true, the core of the rot is in the insurance companies. Institutions warp to shape themselves around the locus of power - and the power here is held by the insurance companies, through whom almost all healthcare payment passes through the greedy, grasping hands of.
So you have drug companies changing hundreds to thousands of dollars for certain treatments that have a marginal cost of a few dollars.
You have hospital administrations that tack on thousands for noting that a particular staff member was part of a visit, no matter how trivial.
Insurance companies are denying coverage for necessary medical treatment, and constantly second guessing the opinions of the health care providers.
The insidious thing is the way the system is, they all independently end up with rationalizations. If insurance companies give providers and drug companies a blank check, then they will only price even worse. On the flip side, the “list price” is a lie to give insurance companies room to “negotiate” and so uninsured get screwed. Hospitals have to cover cost for care that will never be paid for, so everyone that would pay ends up paying more.
Health care is just not an area where privatization works that well. You might have some more elective facets be in the realm of privatization, but basic wellness just isn’t a good fit.
It’s more complicated than that. Look at the fight over PBMs right now. The drug companies say the PBMs are the problem, and the PBMs say the drug companies are the problem, and both are right. The PBMs are an insurance/pharmacy cartel, and the drug companies are legalized monopolies due to drug patents. All of these are corporations whose sole goal is to maximize profits in a totally amoral fashion, and all of them have PR departments that will claim they have the complete opposite motivation that they actually do have. None of them are ever going to actually try to reduce prescription drug prices, but all of them will claim that they are trying as hard as they can and blame everyone else.
This is the intended result of corporate capitalism. It takes the individual out of the picture entirely and shifts the moral responsibility to an entirely amoral, profit-driven entity. When I look at the reaction to Luigi, maybe that’s why people like it - they were never ok with the idea that the individuals can’t be blamed. The corporation and blameless capitalism generally was created by unelected monarchs hundreds of years ago. No one asked for it and it’s time for it to become something that brings individual responsibility back (preferably without the lawless vigilantes).
While this is true, the core of the rot is in the insurance companies. Institutions warp to shape themselves around the locus of power - and the power here is held by the insurance companies, through whom almost all healthcare payment passes through the greedy, grasping hands of.
So you have drug companies changing hundreds to thousands of dollars for certain treatments that have a marginal cost of a few dollars.
You have hospital administrations that tack on thousands for noting that a particular staff member was part of a visit, no matter how trivial.
Insurance companies are denying coverage for necessary medical treatment, and constantly second guessing the opinions of the health care providers.
The insidious thing is the way the system is, they all independently end up with rationalizations. If insurance companies give providers and drug companies a blank check, then they will only price even worse. On the flip side, the “list price” is a lie to give insurance companies room to “negotiate” and so uninsured get screwed. Hospitals have to cover cost for care that will never be paid for, so everyone that would pay ends up paying more.
Health care is just not an area where privatization works that well. You might have some more elective facets be in the realm of privatization, but basic wellness just isn’t a good fit.
After a hospital stay I went through the line by line charges of a relative that had been at the hospital for two days.
$500 for an x-ray, $90 on three separate occasions for an OTC dose of Tylenol.
Everyone is padding things out for more money, but I have a feeling the nurses that actually attended to him didn’t see a cent of it.
Of course the nurses didn’t see a cent of that. They’re hourly and get what they’re paid and should be greatful!!!1!
I’m willing to bet that hospital was owned by an Insurance company.
This is a marvelous sentence.
The rot is in a system that allows this. What you people need is much more regulation, not less.
but muh freedoms!!!1
It infringes on my constitutional freedom to be ripped off!
It’s more complicated than that. Look at the fight over PBMs right now. The drug companies say the PBMs are the problem, and the PBMs say the drug companies are the problem, and both are right. The PBMs are an insurance/pharmacy cartel, and the drug companies are legalized monopolies due to drug patents. All of these are corporations whose sole goal is to maximize profits in a totally amoral fashion, and all of them have PR departments that will claim they have the complete opposite motivation that they actually do have. None of them are ever going to actually try to reduce prescription drug prices, but all of them will claim that they are trying as hard as they can and blame everyone else.
This is the intended result of corporate capitalism. It takes the individual out of the picture entirely and shifts the moral responsibility to an entirely amoral, profit-driven entity. When I look at the reaction to Luigi, maybe that’s why people like it - they were never ok with the idea that the individuals can’t be blamed. The corporation and blameless capitalism generally was created by unelected monarchs hundreds of years ago. No one asked for it and it’s time for it to become something that brings individual responsibility back (preferably without the lawless vigilantes).