Insurance companies don't pay the deductible. Patients pay the deductible directly to the doctors. Deductible as it's defined is the money the insurance company won't cover. Insurance companies won't front the money for the patient.

OK so the patient doesn't pay the deductible, but the hospital will get the rest from the insurance company right?

I fail to see how the amount uncollected could go up from this interaction. Before, uninsured people would have to pay full price (hospitals tend to charge uninsured people more), now they only have to pay a deductible...

Though chances are any time the uninsured rate goes down, the default rates of insured people will go up. Newer insured people are less likely to have their finances intact after all. So anything that lowers the uninsured rate will cause this issue I suppose

Maybe new healthcare revisions should offer FDIC-style insurance for deductibles for hospitals. Wouldn't want people refused from hospitals despite having insurance.

Only if the cost of the services is above the deductible. Let's say you have a $2500 deductible, and go in for a CAT scan that, coincidentally, works out to a cost of $2450. That all comes out of your pocket, if you're doing this on Jan 1 and haven't used any of your deductible yet, with the insurance company paying nothing. If your pockets are empty, the hospital doesn't get paid without hounding you, working out a payment plan, or going to collections.

As a sidebar, it's awesome when you have a situation as described, and then never go to the doctor again for the rest of the year, and so get no cost reductions on anything, despite paying out-of-pocket for the services you did use, plus whatever your premiums are.

Deductibles instead of percentage of service are one of the sillier ways to implement insurance.

I understand that this saves people who go way over, but if the deductible is $2500, what's to stop a $25000 operation from becoming a $35000 one?

There's the hospital-insurance relation but given how flexible hospitals end up being on pricing it sure doesn't feel like enough

Most insurance companies have deductibles AND a percentage of service over the deductible (coinsurance) AND a copay that you always pay and doesn't count towards your deductible.