Posted by moy23 on 11/19/2015 3:47:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 3:00:00 PM (view original):

Posted by moy23 on 11/19/2015 2:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 2:24:00 PM (view original):
Or health insurers can stay in business by leveraging hospitals into lower health care costs. Which would be a good thing. Out of control costs are a real problem.

Hospitals are running as lean as they can already.... They are going out of business because they can't effectively operate on Medicare/Medicaid margins. Most hospitals are not-for-profit.... It's not like they are trying to line their pockets with high costs. What they end up doing is utilizing less employees to do more work which can lead to unsafe assignments. Just ask any nurse..... Oh and while you are at it ask them how bad their benefits have gotten over the last 4 years. It's BAD!

You're wrong. They pad the **** out of the bills. Individuals are essentially powerless to stop it. The only actor in this mess with any leverage other than the government is the health insurance companies.

Hospitals don't make the pens used to mark someone's back or the straps to hold someone down - they buy them. They don't own the ambulance service that bills them. They do have to pay their employees and doctors and nurses make good money - as they should for the amount of education and skills required for that job. There is a lot of overhead in hospitals. Heck a gamma knife alone costs $5 million and needs replacement parts every 5 years.

If hospitals are making money hand over fist why are they closing at almost 20 hospitals per year?

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 2:42:00 PM (view original):

Posted by moy23 on 11/19/2015 2:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 2:24:00 PM (view original):
Or health insurers can stay in business by leveraging hospitals into lower health care costs. Which would be a good thing. Out of control costs are a real problem.

Hospitals are running as lean as they can already.... They are going out of business because they can't effectively operate on Medicare/Medicaid margins. Most hospitals are not-for-profit.... It's not like they are trying to line their pockets with high costs. What they end up doing is utilizing less employees to do more work which can lead to unsafe assignments. Just ask any nurse..... Oh and while you are at it ask them how bad their benefits have gotten over the last 4 years. It's BAD!

time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

Thanks for reposting this.  I posted it a couple of years ago when it first came out as the reason WHY Obamacare is the wrong solution to the healthcare problem in the US.

When we debate health care policy, we seem to jump right to the issue of who should pay the bills, blowing past what should be the first question: Why exactly are the bills so high?

Obamacare does the former.  It does nothing to address the latter.

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 6:20:00 PM (view original):
It does nothing in print. In practice, it forces insurance companies to deal with rising healthcare costs.

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/19/2015 7:53:00 PM (view original):
Because Obamacare is awesome?

Posted by bad_luck on 11/19/2015 4:30:00 PM (view original):
If the cost of healthcare isn't the problem, what is?

If you say the prices are reasonable, what do we do? Essentially no one can really afford to pay for health care on their own. A lot of people can afford insurance and the insurance companies are OK as long as more people don't actually need care but continue paying premiums...how long will that last? Everyone will need care at some point. As your link so clearly pointed out, now that more people have access to health care, the health insurance industry is in trouble. Premiums can only go up so much and if health insurance companies go away, socialized medicine is the only option.