I'd go so far as to say that without pricing information, there is no market at all.
Markets are about communication. A supplier communicates to you what you need to give up to get something else, you communicate to them that you value it by being willing to sacrifice other possible things you could have to get it instead. But without pricing information, nobody is communicating anything with anybody.
the part where we all pay in lots of money, perhaps more than our personal healthcare is actually worth, but everyone is covered. You'd know exactly how much that surgery would be -- $0; you'd already paid for it. I'd probably paid for it a little too, but I was glad too.
To take Moore one step further, i find the fireman analogy very appealing. We pay for their service in taxes -- we don't get a bill from them after our house catches fire. Why is our property's emergency service paid for by taxes, but our own is not?
in a word, SOCIALISM. Lots of conservative countries like it, yet somehow we've inexorably linked it to the red scare.
OH MY GOD. I have encountered this in terms of wanting to pay full medical bills without having any actual insurance, and it makes me so angry. In my case, they couldn't tell me what the cost of anything would be -- and when I squeezed an answer out of them, it CHANGED by the time I went in for the actual appointment. It completely obliterated any ability to plan what I'd go in and take care of, because I had no idea what they would bill me for afterwards.
It blows my mind that our system is so based on some crazy confusing insurance situation that even just wanting to be informed about what I'm dealing with and being fully willing to pay them up front, I can't get a straight answer. It was just nuts!
For me it's not even about the crazy insurance situation... it's just about the ability to plan. As stated above, I *like* that my insurance has gone to co-insurance (with an out of pocket cap), I think it's the right thing. But it's totally pointless if there's no pricing information...
dont get me started. i am supposed to be fully covered, not even a deductible. but i am still getting bills from this one and from that one... i just got a bill for 10,000 regarding a surgery from january. i havent paid anything yet, i duke it out. but its insane for someone with top notch fully covered insurance. if i am one of the lucky ones...
I think price-setting is a key element to healthcare reform. I saw a program on various healthcare systems on PBS a while ago that made it clear that there are many different possible versions of a national healthcare system. One possibility never discussed in the U.S. debate is that the national government in Japan sets the price for every procedure that can be performed in a hospital in the country. You always know exactly what a specific procedure will cost regardless of the hospital. Various providers must compete on service, quality, and what ancillary benefits are available. The problem with this system is that it can go too far. An overnight stay in Japanese hospital is $10/day. The main weakness of this system is that healthcare is too cheap. As a result physicians make relatively less money and many hospitals fail if not run very well. The government periodically raises prices to offset this effect. Another advantage of a single price system versus the government insurance option currently considered for the U.S. is that
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Price fixing historically goes quite poorly. Prices exist to communicate. When you have prices set by fiat, that communication is cut off. If you look at the history of goverment price fixing, it pretty much always leads to shortage, because they set the prices lower than they need to be to cause supply to meet demand.
It should also be pointed out that price fixing (wage freezes in WWII) are what got us into the current mess in the US health system to begin with (it led to our employer based health insurance system).
I'm not asking for price fixing, just price transparency. Price fixing cuts off communication just as surely as price opacity in our current system.
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YOU SOCIALI... oh wait.
;)
(in total agreement.)
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Markets are about communication. A supplier communicates to you what you need to give up to get something else, you communicate to them that you value it by being willing to sacrifice other possible things you could have to get it instead. But without pricing information, nobody is communicating anything with anybody.
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To take Moore one step further, i find the fireman analogy very appealing. We pay for their service in taxes -- we don't get a bill from them after our house catches fire. Why is our property's emergency service paid for by taxes, but our own is not?
in a word, SOCIALISM. Lots of conservative countries like it, yet somehow we've inexorably linked it to the red scare.
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I wouldn't get this surgery at all in the UK under NHS... it would be private medical or not at all.
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It blows my mind that our system is so based on some crazy confusing insurance situation that even just wanting to be informed about what I'm dealing with and being fully willing to pay them up front, I can't get a straight answer. It was just nuts!
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It should also be pointed out that price fixing (wage freezes in WWII) are what got us into the current mess in the US health system to begin with (it led to our employer based health insurance system).
I'm not asking for price fixing, just price transparency. Price fixing cuts off communication just as surely as price opacity in our current system.
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