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Originally Posted by bumab
While a governmental controlled pricing system may solve some of the problems,
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I was certainly NOT suggesting any govenrmental controllled system. Just that sets of private providers could price care in pre-priced packages. Why did you assume the government had to do it?
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... the market can hardly be trusted to keep the prices in check, and the industry can hardly be trusted to police their own prices.
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Competition should provide the policing.
It works now reasonably well for the services that are already consumer oriented. Corrective eye surgery is usually not covered by insurance. As a result, surgeons bundle the package of services into a fixed price and consumers select between competing providers based on experince and outcomes. The real-dollar cost of eye surgery
has fallen over the last 10 years. What a surprise. This model could apply to over half of all US healthcare utilization.
But for competiton to work, consumers have to know 1) what they are buying and 2) what is costs. Then they could compare. The government could not officiate this.
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Few problems are so complex that they cannot be substantially clarified by one more cup of coffee
(or a nice cabernet if it is after 5:00)
Moderator in absentia. Return anticipated. Timing somewhat vague.
