LOL, what a weak argument then in fact right now the insurance companies dictate what a doctor can charge!
Let's see what drives up what doctors charge:
(1) School Costs: Imagine what 8 yrs of school costs $250K-$300K. I don't know but its alot. All new doctor have to make a ton to cover these costs. Solution, make acredited medical schools debt free with a 3 yr service in some lower paying situations after college. Make sure it remain competitive though. This in itself creates a huge incentive for the best and brightest to still join the field and a way to keep costs down.
(2) Admin Costs:
Doctors need a ton of people to just deal with administration costs. They need a few people to fight back in forth with insurance companies.
(3) Internal Collections:
All hospitals now have internal collection departments that are very expensive, yet very ineffective. UHC cuts them out.
(4) Unpaid Bills:
All emergency rooms have to treat the sick, whether illegal or uninsured. These bills go unpaid. They get added to the cost of good paying insured customer. Even the insured can be not covered in the plan (pre-existing conditions), under-insured, have a large deductible or large copay! Unpaid bills drive up the price as these unpaid bills become costs.
(5) ILLEGALS!
Own now I am labeled a racist. But illegal are a GIGANTIC burden on the healthcare system None have insurance, so they don't go to regular doctors. What they do is go to the emergency rooms, because they can't get turned away from the emergency room. They get free treatment and never pay the bill. Ask any hospital manager, illegal are a huge cause of price increase in hospitals.
SOLUTION: Treat illegal, but after that they immediately get detained upon recovery and sent to a holding cell for the authorities to pick them up for deportation hearing and for deportation!
(6) Medical Malipractice Insurance:
Its extremely expensive, but all doctors need it.
(7) Medical Malpractive Suits:
Here is the tricky question. The idiot extremist on the right will say cap rewards, make them tough to get or disallow them altogether. However there are many real problems that can be attributed to doctor negligence and carelessness that ruins people lives and in many cases cripples them and requires them to rely on other for the rest of their lives. Each situation is different and needs to treated differently. Its easy for a person to be heartlessly cold on not allowing compensation to a person hurt by doctor negligence, when they are not the injured person or the injured person is not their son, daughter, wife, husband, parent, cousin or friend. Rewards are unique and caps can easily create injustices.
HOWEVER, no caps on awards creates incertainties. Insurance companies rightfully have to account for even the worst case scenarios when assessing risk. I am not sure how to combat it but there must be something in place to make sure the injured is protected adequately, but the doctor is overburdened with extremely high malpractice insurance.
On top of that there is a legion of lawyers that take on frivolous cases in order to get a quick pay day. A defense attorney will cost a lot, so the hospital or doctor settles to save cash. Even cases that have some merit, but will eventually lose get settled because of the large cost of the defending it. Something has to be done here. Maybe attorney's fee levied against frivilous lawsuits and stricter sanctions against lawyers that do this. Not sure, because it could be a slippery slope!
I digress. In the end, doctor prices get fixed either way, by the insurance agencies or by the government. But if you really want to drive down costs, look at what drives up costs and tackle that!
Let's see what drives up what doctors charge:
(1) School Costs: Imagine what 8 yrs of school costs $250K-$300K. I don't know but its alot. All new doctor have to make a ton to cover these costs. Solution, make acredited medical schools debt free with a 3 yr service in some lower paying situations after college. Make sure it remain competitive though. This in itself creates a huge incentive for the best and brightest to still join the field and a way to keep costs down.
(2) Admin Costs:
Doctors need a ton of people to just deal with administration costs. They need a few people to fight back in forth with insurance companies.
(3) Internal Collections:
All hospitals now have internal collection departments that are very expensive, yet very ineffective. UHC cuts them out.
(4) Unpaid Bills:
All emergency rooms have to treat the sick, whether illegal or uninsured. These bills go unpaid. They get added to the cost of good paying insured customer. Even the insured can be not covered in the plan (pre-existing conditions), under-insured, have a large deductible or large copay! Unpaid bills drive up the price as these unpaid bills become costs.
(5) ILLEGALS!
Own now I am labeled a racist. But illegal are a GIGANTIC burden on the healthcare system None have insurance, so they don't go to regular doctors. What they do is go to the emergency rooms, because they can't get turned away from the emergency room. They get free treatment and never pay the bill. Ask any hospital manager, illegal are a huge cause of price increase in hospitals.
SOLUTION: Treat illegal, but after that they immediately get detained upon recovery and sent to a holding cell for the authorities to pick them up for deportation hearing and for deportation!
(6) Medical Malipractice Insurance:
Its extremely expensive, but all doctors need it.
(7) Medical Malpractive Suits:
Here is the tricky question. The idiot extremist on the right will say cap rewards, make them tough to get or disallow them altogether. However there are many real problems that can be attributed to doctor negligence and carelessness that ruins people lives and in many cases cripples them and requires them to rely on other for the rest of their lives. Each situation is different and needs to treated differently. Its easy for a person to be heartlessly cold on not allowing compensation to a person hurt by doctor negligence, when they are not the injured person or the injured person is not their son, daughter, wife, husband, parent, cousin or friend. Rewards are unique and caps can easily create injustices.
HOWEVER, no caps on awards creates incertainties. Insurance companies rightfully have to account for even the worst case scenarios when assessing risk. I am not sure how to combat it but there must be something in place to make sure the injured is protected adequately, but the doctor is overburdened with extremely high malpractice insurance.
On top of that there is a legion of lawyers that take on frivolous cases in order to get a quick pay day. A defense attorney will cost a lot, so the hospital or doctor settles to save cash. Even cases that have some merit, but will eventually lose get settled because of the large cost of the defending it. Something has to be done here. Maybe attorney's fee levied against frivilous lawsuits and stricter sanctions against lawyers that do this. Not sure, because it could be a slippery slope!
I digress. In the end, doctor prices get fixed either way, by the insurance agencies or by the government. But if you really want to drive down costs, look at what drives up costs and tackle that!
