[pharrlax]

>If regular, predictable events are covered, it is not insurance. Regular, predictable events are not insurable.

The problem in the U.S. is that we have this bizarre system where hospitals charge exorbitant prices and then insurers haggle them down to something halfway sane. So when you're paying for "insurance" you're (ideally) getting both catastrophic coverage (i.e. actual insurance) as well as access to a cartel that negotiates prices down from impossible heights on your behalf -- even for routine care.

Since most people who regularly access medical care do so through these cartels, care providers have no incentive to make care more affordable than what they can get away with -- and insurers have no incentive to allow the price to drop either, since people being able to afford care outside the cartels would ultimately undercut their profits.

This system is fundamentally unworkable. There's really no way to detangle the perverse incentives here in a way that will bring prices down to a level comparable with single payer healthcare.

[kronin]

The ultimate reason behind hospitals attempting to charge exorbitant prices is due to Medicare and Medicaid paying under cost for services. Hospitals need to make that difference up somewhere. Surprisingly, if you remove the profit hospitals make on ancillary services like the gift shop, parking fees and investment income, they are losing money.

[maroonblazer]

Isn't the overly-litigious nature of the U.S.A also why costs are so high?

The malpractice insurance that docs and hospitals need to carry in order to defend themselves should they be sued is passed onto consumers in the form of higher medical costs.

Or at least that's how someone once explained it to me. Is that not also a contributing factor?

[analog31]

Anybody in the entire health care system can point their finger at someone else and claim that they're the ones who are gouging us. I suspect that they're all gouging us.

One thing I've read is that states with caps on malpractice claims do not have lower medical costs.

[pshposh]

"overly-litigious" would need to be cited in my opinion. What is "overly"?

[patrickthebold]

That can't be true. They are not required to accept Medicare or Medicaid. If it was a losing offer they just wouldn't accept it.

[kronin]

"Payment rates for Medicare and Medicaid, with the exception of managed care plans, are set by law rather than through a negotiation process, as with private insurers. These payment rates are currently set below the costs of providing care, resulting in underpayment. Payments made by managed care plans contracting with the Medicare and Medicaid programs are generally negotiated with the hospital.

Hospital participation in Medicare and Medicaid is voluntary. However, as a condition for receiving federal tax exemption for providing health care to the community, not-for-profit hospitals are required to care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Also, Medicare and Medicaid account for more than 60 percent of all care provided by hospitals. Consequently, very few hospitals can elect not to participate in Medicare and Medicaid."

Source (American Hospital Association, December 2016): http://www.aha.org/content/16/medicaremedicaidunderpmt.pdf (Sorry it's a PDF)

Edit: updated from 2010 reference to 2016 reference

[sjwright]

That quote is misleading because it implies that the cost of care is static, that it's not also heavily influenced by spending choices made by the hospital that don't affect patient outcomes. Or heavily influenced by the consequences of the broken healthcare system, like the overuse of emergency rooms by people who can't afford to see a doctor.

Hospitals could easily afford to provide care at Medicare/Medicaid rates — if they're willing to have less impressive lobbies, marketing materials, corporate facilities and shareholder profits. Citation: all other first world countries.

[klipt]

> shareholder profits

Do intelligent people ever go to for-profit hospitals? I'd group those with for-profit universities and for-profit prisons as "nope, not touching that, stay as far away as possible and hope they all disappear".

[fusiongyro]

No matter your intelligence, if you're having a heart attack, you go to the nearest hospital, whatever its tax status may be.

[ll123]

non-profit hospitals and non-profit universities have had exorbitant price increases in the last few decades so they aren't doing any better

[creaghpatr]

It's because in addition to the reimbursement, hospitals are paid a bonus fee by US taxpayers called a DSH to subsidize the subsidies. This serves to incentivize providers not to drop Medicare/Medicaid patients and also covers up the losses incurred.

More info: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Paymen...

Good commentary about upcoming changes that endanger these programs: http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20170626/NEWS/170629...

[hockley]

The ultimate reason behind hospitals attempting to charge exorbitant prices is that you have no choice but to pay.

[isolli]

Hospitals charge high prices because they can. They are often local monopolies, and behave accordingly. And with an utter lack of price transparency, which makes the idea that patients could shop around a joke.

[EGreg]

There is a simple reason for the "cartel": it's called moral hazard.

You have the monopsony that comes from collective buying power on the one hand. (An argument for SINGLE PAYER insurance.)

On the other you have the usual moral hazard which says, if the customer ain't paying, try to charge as much as possible.

So it's this game of bigger and bigger armies. Same as when countries can't make a peace deal where neighborhoods and individuals long ago could have. A single person can torpedo a deal. It's all or nothing.

It's also why some British bureaucrats in the NHS face the choice of dropping coverage for a drug because the company just won't play ball and charge a low enough price. When are you willing to walk away when you represent a lot of people??