Comments on: How Medicare Destroyed the Free Market

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:22:59 +0000

Absolutely. I’m on my fourth arm and am awaiting my fifth leg. The demand is so high it’s on back-order.

By: Veruckt

Veruckt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:16:56 +0000

Don’t forget that guvment watchdogs showed that the $4500 tax credit cost $24,000 a pop once you figured in administrative cost and other nonsense.

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:16:47 +0000

Medical equipment and pharmaceutical sales reps are notorious for being hot, young and female.

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:15:41 +0000

Ultimately the keys are the federal government should control it all. Then it will run as smoothly as everything run by the federal government.

By: Rufus

Rufus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:13:39 +0000

G-Man,

The clunkers money was borrowed from China and most of it went to foreign auto companies in Japan, Germany and South Korea.

By: Veruckt

Veruckt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:15:34 +0000

Trzupr,

I’d heard about the boom in contact lenses but didn’t personally witness it. The one I hear about most now is prosthetic limbs which is apparently a gold mine.

By: blackhawk12151

blackhawk12151 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:55:41 +0000

“Piece” of mind??? I wish I proofread more…

By: trzupr

trzupr — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:19:26 +0000

An attorney buddy who works in the health care industry told me tales about the hey-day of contact lens salespeople. At one point, he said, the Medicare fee schedule was so far out of whack with the actual cost of producing contacts (which had dropped dramatically) that contact lens manufacturers were making enormous – ungodly – profits. All you had to do was find a hospital or doctor willing to buy from you. No negotiation required – for Medicare eliminated the need. There was so much money to be had, the tale goes, that some manufacturers took to hiring lovely young women who were willing to do anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) to make a sale.

Great explanation V. This post should be required reading for every one of our Representatives and Senators.

By: Veruckt

Veruckt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:18:36 +0000

My next big article that I’m working on is a solution to this problem. The direction I think would work best is completely abolishing the “fee schedule” from healthcare and putting physicians in control of their pricing. As it is now a physician has no say in what he charges for his own services and healthcare is the only industry this occurs in. My idea would see physicians bidding to insurance carriers their pricing for services and the insurance carrier determining rather that amount is acceptable. For example:

Dr. Smith in Nashville TN is charging $100 for Xrays and approaches Cigna with his pricing on services but Cigna rejects his pricing because 3 miles away Dr. Johnson is charging $85 for xrays. This leaves Dr. Smith two choices, lower his pricing to compete or not be able to see Cigna patients. This would rapidly drive down the cost of healthcare as physicians were forced to compete.

Also it would open up the opportunity for “cash value” health insurance where you could buy a set dollar value of coverage (just like getting $25,000 of liability on your auto coverage). Since patients would now know the pricing of medical services at the various providers they would be able to make informed decisions and utilize their coverage more budget minded, basically go to doctors who were the most affordable. The set coverage amount would also greatly reduce the risk to insurance carriers and reduced risk means reduced cost to the consumer.

Ultimately the keys are: physicians need to control their pricing and patients need to control the purse strings. Problem solved.

By: blackhawk12151

blackhawk12151 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:14:54 +0000

We insure our houses in the event of a fire or another destructive event. These are unlikely to happen, but just in case we purchase security for piece of mind. When it comes to health insurance we are insuring for something that WILL happen. We won’t all face horrible diseases or injuries, but we will get sick, and we will go to the doctor.

And now we are poised to allow a massive 4th party to enter the healthcare business.