Obamacare prices: The insurance companies have run amok

[Cyrano]

We should have single payer, universal health care like the rest of the world's democracies. But we're still stuck with American insurance companies in the healthcare business. And as long as they're involved in healthcare, we will always get fucked.

Healthcare should not be a business. It should be a right. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is extremely difficult if you're not healthy.

The GOP has done everything in their power to block health care for forever, for us peasants. They are on the side of the insurance companies that want to drain our last cent and then let us die.

Don't buy into the bullshit that Obama and the Democratic Party have screwed us with Obamacare. The Republicans, the insurance companies, and an extremely ignorant electorate who consistently vote for the GOP are the ones who have screwed us.

If we ever get a Democratic President, a veto proof Senate and House of Representatives, all in office at the same time, universal health care will become a reality. Until then, stop listening the the lies spread by those who profit from misery and depriving the American people of what the rest of the civilized world has come to expect.

[metroins]

1. All price increases

Must be approved by the States Department of insurance.

You can blame the insurers but they can't increase rates without approval.

[Cyrano]

2. And most states are controlled by GOP governors and legislatures.

[former9thward]

9. CA, OR, WA, NY all approved the increases.

No state, no matter what the control, has said no.

[PoliticAverse]

3. We had a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress for 2 years and we didn't get the...

"universal health care" you claim we would get, we got the ACA.

And please, no counter arguments using the word "filibuster" as the party in control of the
Senate can eliminate or modify the rules for the filibuster at any time.

[stopbush]

4. I don't see how single payer reduces prices.

All single payer means is that there is only one entity that pays hospitals, doctors etc what they are charging patients. Rather than there being multiple insurance companies, there is one government agency that pays the healthcare providers.

Unless the government is also going to step in and set/regulate prices, prices will keep going up, because PROVIDERS set the prices, not the government. What happens if the single payer government says they will pay a max of $12,000 for a hip replacement while the provider is charging $100,000? Who is on the hook for the $88,000 that the government won't cover? Why, it's the patient.

The only real gain in single payer is a savings in overhead. At present, government programs like Medicare have an overhead cost of around 3%. Insurance companies have a margin of 15-20%. While a savings of 12% is significant, it doesn't address the issue of price increases for services.

[Cyrano]

5. Seems that single payer works for

all the European democracies, Canada and Japan.

I'm not an expert on the details. Nonetheless, it seems to me that as long as insurance companies are getting a huge (yuuge?) cut, prices will remain high.

So how come the rest of the civilized world can make this work and we (supposedly) can't?

[onethatcares]

6. i think, and I'm not sure

that the having to pay 80% of premiums on actual care is the main driver for this increase. Before it was like, 30% admin fees, 30% profit and what ever was left to treatment and care.

We wouldn't want to hurt the bonuses and salaries of our lords and masters now, would we?

[mythology]

13. It would help if people bothered to actually get informed

The Netherlands has one the highest rated medical outcomes and doesn't have single payer.

Likewise Japan doesn't have single payer.

Your argument is unsupported by your own supposed evidence.

This is part of why we can't have a useful discussion. Too many people refuse to discuss actual facts and instead insist their fantasy system is perfect and every other system is wrong.

[lame54]

7. You may not see it but other countries do

[Warren DeMontague]

8. the same way medicare negotiates better prices.

leverage.

[mythology]

11. Except Medicare is specifically not allowed to do that

Awkward.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. You're right. Medicare just pays what it pays, no "negotiation"

And providers have to deal with it because medicare is the closest thing to a single payer system we have.

https://www.mercatus.org/publication/medicare-role-determining-prices-throughout-health-care-system

[subterranean]

10. Your second paragraph answered your question.

If we had single payer, the government would regulate prices. At least that's what other countries with universal health care do. We're the only advanced country that doesn't regulate prescription drug prices, with the result that we pay the highest drug prices in the world by far.

In your hypothetical example, the provider would not gouge patients $100,000 for a hip replacement because few people could afford to pay that. They would be forced to bring their prices down to a reasonable level. Would some doctors have to get by on less income? Sure, but as in other countries, they'd still manage to make a pretty good living.

[stopbush]

14. If government sets prices, you don't need single payer.

Every insurance company would love to have government set the prices they have to pay for surgeries, drugs etc. The only question would be: what are the premiums? Setting prices would probably encourage competition among insurance companies, which would benefit consumers.

BTW - while the feds are not allowed to negotiate drug prices for Medicare/caid, private insurance companies can and do negotiate drug prices with the manufacturers. The idea that an insurance company simply passes along the high cost to their customers and then pays their % is idiotic. Of course they negotiate prices. Every dollar they don't have to pay is a dollar in profit. That's why every insurance policy comes with a schedule of procedures and drugs that are and aren't covered, and if covered, by what %, patient co-pays and deductibles.

[area51]

15. A bit more info

on single-payer healthcare.