Only if there is no competition and no free market[1]
If you are locked into "choosing" the one in-network service provider in your area who can price very differently for your insurance than for others yes there is room for perverse incentives as is today.
If you and I can choose freely from any service provider in the area and everyone has to price the same way( i.e. not change basis who the customer is) then they will have to be competitive, people are very price sensitive and will tend to move towards the ones which are cheaper.
See how the airlines all slowly have moved towards the low-cost models: more economy/less first class even if they were full service. Sure you will have some Frontier/Spirit type organizations eventually but if they get the job done(Moving you from A to B) at lowest price then that is all that matters[3], similarly if a hospital is no-frills and gets your cataract operation[2] or do regular checkup faster and cheaper they will do so and plenty of people benefit from that.
Force hospitals to compete, not lock into monopolistic preferential contracts with some buyers and force users to now be exhorted crazy premiums to avoid the possibility being charged even more. Price regulation does not mean government fixes the prices, it should just mean that service provider have to charge the same for anyone without knowing their source (which insurance plan/company or self-funded and income level).
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[1] While there are some cases where two hospitals / doctors are not equivalent and cannot be compared, vast majority of care is fungible, i.e. you can replace one hospital / doctor with another without material impact to outcome of care.
[3] This assumes robust regulation, which we already have in healthcare, probably more so than required, there is no systemic regulatory oversight problems in the industry today.
If you are locked into "choosing" the one in-network service provider in your area who can price very differently for your insurance than for others yes there is room for perverse incentives as is today.
If you and I can choose freely from any service provider in the area and everyone has to price the same way( i.e. not change basis who the customer is) then they will have to be competitive, people are very price sensitive and will tend to move towards the ones which are cheaper.
See how the airlines all slowly have moved towards the low-cost models: more economy/less first class even if they were full service. Sure you will have some Frontier/Spirit type organizations eventually but if they get the job done(Moving you from A to B) at lowest price then that is all that matters[3], similarly if a hospital is no-frills and gets your cataract operation[2] or do regular checkup faster and cheaper they will do so and plenty of people benefit from that.
Force hospitals to compete, not lock into monopolistic preferential contracts with some buyers and force users to now be exhorted crazy premiums to avoid the possibility being charged even more. Price regulation does not mean government fixes the prices, it should just mean that service provider have to charge the same for anyone without knowing their source (which insurance plan/company or self-funded and income level).
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[1] While there are some cases where two hospitals / doctors are not equivalent and cannot be compared, vast majority of care is fungible, i.e. you can replace one hospital / doctor with another without material impact to outcome of care.
[2] I have seen this myself work https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Ideas/Speeches/2008/05/willi... it is like assembly line, brutal efficiency.
[3] This assumes robust regulation, which we already have in healthcare, probably more so than required, there is no systemic regulatory oversight problems in the industry today.