Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by xnx on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @05:39PM
(#45739586)
> But the largest inefficiencies are all on the providers side. We simply pay practitioners too much
I agree. The complex insurance billing system enables his by obfuscating prices and limiting ability to comparison shop.
Re:Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k
by tptacek on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @05:43PM
(#45739624)
That's true, but it's a problem single-payer doesn't fix; that's my big issue with it (it locks in rapacious rates and preferences for the health provider industry, making them palatable to consumers by hiding the payer).
But the largest inefficiencies are all on the providers side. We simply pay practitioners too much, enforce artificial scarcity of practitioners, and prescribe too many services.
So if we're talking about "The American System" as a whole --- which is what the thread is about --- it behooves us first to consider the question "how much better would things be if we simply zeroed this category of expense out". The answer is, to a first approximation, we would get a 6.5% price break. I would not drive even a couple blocks out of my way to get a 6.5% price break on a pack of chicken breasts.