Oct 08 2009
Pay Cash for Health Care
Charles Hugh Smith – The expansion of health insurance and government entitlements created “free money” and thus the explosion of healthcare costs. The solution is simple and “impossible”: we all pay cash.
Here’s why healthcare (a.k.a. sick-care) costs cannot be reduced; the entire system is based on vast pools of “free money.” The corporate-America or union/government employee who goes to the doctor pays a few dollars for a visit and drugs; the “real cost” is of no concern. Ditto the “real costs” charged to Medicare and Medicaid.
The link between the “consumer” of healthcare and the provider has been broken for decades. There is no “free market” in healthcare–there isn’t any market at all. We live in a Kafka-esque nightmare system in which “some are more equal than others” and hundreds of thousands of dollars are lavished on worthless tests, procedures and medications for two reasons:
1. because there’s “free money” to pay the bills
2. so-called “defensive medicine” in which worthless tests are administrated to stave off random (sometimes valid, sometimes nuisance) malpractice lawsuits.
There is a solution so simple and so radical that it is “impossible” (and of course you’re reading it here): shut down insurance and all government entitlements, and return to the “golden era” of the 1950s when everyone paid cash for healthcare.
Read the remainder of the article here.
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This is quite thought provoking, Roland.
Roland, what you point out exists already and has a high likelihood of expanding. In my training in Charleston, SC, I became aware of a family physician who rejected all insurance plans, Medicare and Medicaid and only worked for cash. $200 per month for his platinum plan, $100/mo for his basic plan. You can visit his website at: http://letssimplify.com/ Reportedly, he has a busy and thriving practice. The creation and promotion of high-deductible low-cost insurance plans secondarily promote the creation of such systems. I’m not aware of such a system in Omaha, but as a radiologist, I am aware of imaging centers in Omaha who offer 50% off their routine scan prices for cash-only up-front payment from patients who want to avoid the insurance filing (because of a high-deductible the money ends up coming out of their pockets anyway).