Re:Hospitals lift curtain on prices, revealing giant swings ...
by refurb on Wednesday September 22, 2021 @08:59PM
(#28624044)
This is what other countries with large well functioning private systems (Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland) do - they set reference prices that generously cap the costs that can be charged.
What people don’t understand is the appetite for healthcare spending is practically limitless - there is always something more you can do even if the benefit is marginal. As such you have to control spending somehow and the options are (not exhaustive):
- ration care by capping total healthcare spending - “we will do 1,000 hip replacements this year, everyone else waits”
- make the cost visible to patients so they ration their own care - Singapore does this even in their public system. There is no free care, you are expected to pay something according to your ability. This is what the US is trying to do with the move to HDHPs
- closely regulate coverage and prices. Many systems do this.
What people don’t understand is the appetite for healthcare spending is practically limitless - there is always something more you can do even if the benefit is marginal. As such you have to control spending somehow and the options are (not exhaustive):
- ration care by capping total healthcare spending - “we will do 1,000 hip replacements this year, everyone else waits”
- make the cost visible to patients so they ration their own care - Singapore does this even in their public system. There is no free care, you are expected to pay something according to your ability. This is what the US is trying to do with the move to HDHPs
- closely regulate coverage and prices. Many systems do this.