High prices in healthcare and medicine is directly caused by insurance and the resulting lack of price discovery. I buy a prescription and pay a flat $10, no matter what the real cost actually is. Back in the 70s, before prescription coverage, the average price of a prescription was a little more than $2. That was the full price. I was taking an expensive medicine that cost almost $15. That same type of medicine now is a $40 copay, and the real cost is supposedly up near $300.
The same thing has happened in healthcare. A relative was born in the 70s, and the total hospital bill was $750. And it was just one single bill. There were no bills from a dozen different people, doctors, anesthetists, x-ray techs, etc. There was just one bill. And the parent paid the bill out of pocket, no insurance at all.
When I was a child, my parents had no insurance. My father would take me to the doctor. The doctor's office was just the doctor and a nurse, no one else, and the office was part of the upstairs of an old house. When the doctor was done, he'd tell my father how much to pay. My father would hand him a $5 or $10 bill, the doctor would pull out his billfold, insert the bill, and put the billfold back in his pocket. There was no paperwork. Now, with insurance, I have a larger copay, and the real cost is astronomical.
Insurance should only be used for catastrophic occurrences. Car insurance would cost a fortune, if people used it to buy wiper blades and check the tires.
So right now, there is no competition in healthcare because of insurance.
The existence of insurance causes the high prices, because no one sees the high prices directly. As I said, everything was cheaper before insurance. If medicine was too high at one drug store, you could go to another down the street. Now, with insurance, you pay the same deductible no matter which store.
Of government screws up everything they touch, but insurance is the root cause of high healthcare prices.
High prices in healthcare and medicine is directly caused by insurance and the resulting lack of price discovery. I buy a prescription and pay a flat $10, no matter what the real cost actually is. Back in the 70s, before prescription coverage, the average price of a prescription was a little more than $2. That was the full price. I was taking an expensive medicine that cost almost $15. That same type of medicine now is a $40 copay, and the real cost is supposedly up near $300.
The same thing has happened in healthcare. A relative was born in the 70s, and the total hospital bill was $750. And it was just one single bill. There were no bills from a dozen different people, doctors, anesthetists, x-ray techs, etc. There was just one bill. And the parent paid the bill out of pocket, no insurance at all.
When I was a child, my parents had no insurance. My father would take me to the doctor. The doctor's office was just the doctor and a nurse, no one else, and the office was part of the upstairs of an old house. When the doctor was done, he'd tell my father how much to pay. My father would hand him a $5 or $10 bill, the doctor would pull out his billfold, insert the bill, and put the billfold back in his pocket. There was no paperwork. Now, with insurance, I have a larger copay, and the real cost is astronomical.
Insurance should only be used for catastrophic occurrences. Car insurance would cost a fortune, if people used it to buy wiper blades and check the tires.
So right now, there is no competition in healthcare because of insurance.
The existence of insurance causes the high prices, because no one sees the high prices directly. As I said, everything was cheaper before insurance. If medicine was too high at one drug store, you could go to another down the street. Now, with insurance, you pay the same deductible no matter which store.
Of government screws up everything they touch, but insurance is the root cause of high healthcare prices.