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A comment on List price for stitches at Stanford Health Care: $93K. Parent comment

Re:List price for stitches at Stanford Health Care: $93K by mabbo on Sunday July 11, 2021 @11:49AM (#27801788)
> Many people think they have coverage, so they might as well use it. This can happen extremely often and for minor things. Think people going into the doctor or urgent care because they have cold symptoms (for less than a week) and want antibiotics

Do you have anything backing up that assertion?

I've been to the hospital feeling rotten on more than one occasion, and the doctor has said "You have the flu. Antibiotics won't help. Go home and get some rest." The doctor has no incentive to prescribe me drugs I don't need. There's always a few shitty doctors at clinics/hospitals who will over-prescribe, but the health care system has an incentive to find and stop those doctors- they're wasting taxpayer money.

Meanwhile in the US, the doctor would be financially incentivized to request a chest x-ray and prescribe whatever drugs might be helpful "just in case", fearing a lawsuit for doing too little and fearing their employer being mad at them for not up-selling to bring in more money.

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Re:List price for stitches at Stanford Health Care: $93K by giantg2 on Sunday July 11, 2021 @12:03PM (#27801937)
It's anecdotes, generalizations, and informations from friends in healthcare. Which I'm guessing is similar to what your comment is based on (no sources).

I don't see how changing the healthcare system would implicitly change the torts. Medicare and Medicaid haven't changed that.

I also don't see how the single payer system would prevent over prescription or unnecessary treatment. These also occur under Medicare and Medicaid, as does substantial fraud.

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