“ECONOMIC RULES OF THE DYSFUNCTIONAL MEDICAL MARKET More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option. A lifetime of treatment is preferable to a cure. Amenities and marketing matter more than good care. As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American. More competitors vying for business doesn’t mean better prices; it can drive prices up, not down. Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more. There is no such thing as a fixed price for a procedure or test. And the uninsured pay the highest prices of all. There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything and everything. Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.”
“Collectively, the medical industry has become the country’s biggest lobbying force, spending nearly half a billion dollars each year. In 2015 the oil and gas industry spent 100 million, and the defense/aerospace industry a mere $75 million.”
“Studies have showed that hospitals charge patients who are uninsured or self-pay 2.5 times more than they charge covered by health insurance (who are billed negotiated rates) and three times more than the amount allowed by Medicare.”
— Elisabeth Rosenthal, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back
I built a tool to help people negotiate their US medical bills here: Empowered Healthcare Consumer