Doctors and medicine are expensive because of insurance. With insurance, you don't have "price discovery." In other words, you don't shop around because the deductible is the same everywhere. For example, one of my prescriptions has a deductible of $10. It doesn't matter which drugstore I go to, it's still $10. Back before insurance, different stores had different prices, so you could shop around for the cheapest. The full price of that medicine 50 years ago was just $15. Now insurance claims that the full price is between $200 and $300. We are paying that full price through our insurance payments.
Insurance also adds to the expense of running a doctor's office. He has to hire bookkeepers and other staff to keep up with all the insurance filing and Medicare stuff. When I was a child, my doctor had a nurse and no one else. The doctor would tell my father that he was charging $10. My father would hand the doctor $10, and the doctor would put the $10 in his billfold. There was zero paperwork and thus no added expense.
Medical insurance should be similar to auto insurance. Auto insurance doesn't pay for wipers, tires, oil, etc., just for expensive accidents. Health insurance should be only for major medical problems, not colds or flu or simple broken bones and such.
Doctors and medicine are expensive because of insurance. With insurance, you don't have "price discovery." In other words, you don't shop around because the deductible is the same everywhere. For example, one of my prescriptions has a deductible of $10. It doesn't matter which drugstore I go to, it's still $10. Back before insurance, different stores had different prices, so you could shop around for the cheapest. The full price of that medicine 50 years ago was just $15. Now insurance claims that the full price is between $200 and $300. We are paying that full price through our insurance payments.
Insurance also adds to the expense of running a doctor's office. He has to hire bookkeepers and other staff to keep up with all the insurance filing and Medicare stuff. When I was a child, my doctor had a nurse and no one else. The doctor would tell my father that he was charging $10. My father would hand the doctor $10, and the doctor would put the $10 in his billfold. There was zero paperwork and thus no added expense.
Medical insurance should be similar to auto insurance. Auto insurance doesn't pay for wipers, tires, oil, etc., just for expensive accidents. Health insurance should be only for major medical problems, not colds or flu or simple broken bones and such.