Re:Trump proposes forcing hospitals to disclose discount rat...
by pkaye on Monday July 29, 2019 @07:50PM
(#20560747)
Are hospitals really that profitable? Take SF general hospital for example. Its obligated to take care of the homeless, drug addicts, under insured that they seem to overcharge the few insured that get admitted to balance their budgets. I'd be curious for an actual fair accounting of things. Are they really flush with money and just overcharging?
Re:Trump proposes forcing hospitals to disclose discount rat...
by masonic on Monday July 29, 2019 @11:40PM
(#20561961)
Public hospitals don't operate on a profit model.
If you go down the street, however:
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/22/18183534/zuckerberg-san-franci...
1. For people without insurance it would possibly give them a little more bargaining power in the negotiations around bills. Right now the hospital holds all the cards, especially when it comes to "costs".
2. It would shine a little light into an area that is generically murky. A lot of people are champions of capitalism/markets being the solution for all/most problems, but market systems do not work well at all when there is a heavy information imbalance. Pretty much every theory of capitalism talks about that. Right now an enormous information imbalance pretty much sums up the U.S. healthcare system.