how did the US screw up health insurance so bad?

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how did the US screw up health insurance so bad?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Unrestricted free market and a government prepared to pay insurance companies rather than provide healthcare directly themselves.

Anonymous 0 Comments

More or less a private health insurance industry was built up out of the efforts of individual hospitals and private hospital associations like the American Hospital Association and other groups to develop payment structures for care in the first half of the 20th century.

The US government never engaged in rate setting or any other policy aimed at managing the amounts hospitals could charge*. Public payers with the heft and and incentive to bring down costs while maintaining low prices for members were only developed for the old, disabled, and very poor. Private insurance and provider markets became extremely concentrated and there was basically no anti-trust reaction.

In short, the government didn’t do any of the several key things other governments do to contain healthcare costs. Every attempt to do so is, generally, met with violent screeching by the Republican party and determined opposition by providers and payers.

*I just want to note that, as a health policy researcher, it’s kind of BS just how little providers get blamed for astronomical prices.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Insurance is a pooled risk against unlikely events.

It should not be used for routine care.

To base a heathcare system on Insurance operating assumptions will always result in unreasonable costs.

All negotiations are carried out at the confluence of interests of organizations that do not have your interests at the center of their positions:
-Insurance providers
-Your employer
-Pharmaceutical companies
-Healthcare companies

Once they all agree on a position that they find acceptable, you are then sold on the “benefits” being offered.

At no time is there a feedback system that provides downward pressure on costs and improved quality of service.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Unregulated greed on the part of insurance companies. little we can do to go back on it now. as an american without health insurance, any major life event is not only a debt sentance, it’s likely a death sentance as well.

Anonymous 0 Comments

We are also pretty unhealthy…. Not exactly surprising healthcare costs have gone up as we have gotten more obese and older as a nation.

Anonymous 0 Comments

M-O-N-E-Y

At some point, the health care industry realized they could put a stranglehold on the American people and make a fortune in the process.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is an argument to be made that they did not screw it up. When Obamacare was being “debated” polling showed something like 70-80% of the people liking what they had. You get 70% of people to like something in the United States, thats impressive.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The 3rd party payer system is stupid.

Imagine buying groceries in the following way. You pay company xyz $200 a month for groceries. Then you go to the store load up your basket and walk out. You dont know how much anything costs, you dont know how much you spent, you just leave. Then, a month later you get a bill from xyz because you got $300 in groceries so they bill you $150 for the difference, plus fees.

Thats how American healthcare works.

Anonymous 0 Comments

liability. US is THE most litigious country and when it comes to healthcare the damages can be awarded in billions. Hospitals have to take cover, doctors have to, care takers have to and ultimately the pharma companies have to. All this adds to high cost of services. For covering a high priced service, the premium would obviously be high. When was the last time a court awarded a million euro fine on a doctor/hospital for negligence in service?

Anonymous 0 Comments

Health insurance isn’t screwed up. Just see the salaries of upper management and CEOs of so-called nonprofit hospitals. Plus, the dividends of health insurance to its stock holders are robust. They are ‘winning.’

As far as universal medical coverage, the health industry (insurance, upper mgt, investors, owners, device manufacturers) wins as less of it is covered and administered by government. People cut out of medical coverage, those that are underinsured, and those insured people that suffer a catastrophic event means more $ for the health industry by raising costs/ prices on those that they cover!