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Private insurance companies have earned the public’s distrust. They routinely put profitability above their policyholders’ well-being. And a system of private health insurance provision also has higher administrative costs than a single-payer system, in which the government is the sole insurer.
But the avarice and inefficiencies of private insurers are not the sole — or even primary — reasons why vital medical services are often unaffordable and inaccessible in the United States. The bigger issue is that America’s health care providers — hospitals, physicians, and drug companies — charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations.
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A for-profit healthcare system is bad.
And I wish more mainstream outlets than Vox would talk about that. So many Americans are absolutely convinced that socialized medicine is a terrible idea. My mom watched British reality shows about hospitals on Netflix and if you would hear her talk about it, British people are dying in the streets because the ambulance doesn’t get there for half a day and you have to wait five years to see a doctor.
And I’ve told her that she’s watching a show put together by people who want you to see the worst possible side of things so you’ll keep watching, but she just doesn’t accept that.
I’m an American and I have to wait months to see a specialist. I think I’ll take my chances with socialized healthcare.
Yep. Me too. Took me nine months to get a new neurologist when my old one retired.
I think it was a five month wait to see if I had cancer. Luckily it wasn’t a bad one, eh?
Anaesthesiologist take over your breathing and control your physiology when undergoing surgery. I want them handsomely compensated.
Edit: also let’s be honest here. Anthem isn’t going to take the savings from paying physicians less and pass them onto you the consumer. They’ll take the savings and issue a stock buyback.
Sorry, they don’t get handsome compensation. Not when they have to pay back those student loans.
The era of the rich doctor is over. Medical group and hospital CEOs are the ones getting rich these days.
Anaesthesiologists are not having trouble paying back student loans. It’s one of the highest paid specialties.
This article is BS as was Anthem’s policy. But, anaesthesiologists are doing just fine. If you want to feel bad for an MD, try pediatric oncologists or another specialty that isn’t in high demand.
I don’t know why you think anyone isn’t having trouble paying back student loans at this point.
Because, I know MDs with student loans. I don’t know why you think _everyone _ is having trouble paying back student loans.
I’m not saying the whole student loan business isn’t fucked up. Or, that there aren’t lots of people screwed over by the system.
But, of all the the people with student loans, anesthesiologists are the least of concern. It’s just stupidly laughable to show concern for an anesthesiologist‘s student loans. They’re fine. It’s one of the highest paid specialties.
Anthem’s policy proposal was dangerous and fucking scary from a patient treatment perspective. Arguing against it from the perspective of the anesthesiologist‘s loan payments makes no sense. The anesthesiologist would still be getting paid well while the patient laid on the table in agony or dying from lack of treatment.
They’ll take the savings and issue a stock buyback.
They can’t do that.
The ACA requires large health insurers to spend 85% of their income on health care providers. If they don’t (eg because they start paying less to anesthesiologists) then the savings must be used to reduce premiums or give rebates to customers.
Vox, do you want to know why those medical service providers charge much higher rates? Gee…
I’ll give you a hint. It requires a large bureaucracy and staff to deal purely with interfacing with this behemoth that’s somehow part of the healthcare but has nothing to do with actually providing the healthcare. You guessed it! It’s still the health insurance companies. I strongly disagree with the article conclusion.
Health insurance companies actually incentivize more expensive medical care because it allows them to show you the bigger discount and punish others for trying to go around the insurance mafia. Their goal is to force everyone to pay the toll, the maximum possible toll, and provide the least amount of service possible in doing so.
Don’t blame doctors. Hell, don’t even blame the hospitals even though they do have crappy administration. The heart of the problem is private insurance. Insurance games the system, and people die.
I worked in a hospital for a long time and oversaw an entire team of people whose only job was to interface and argue with insurance companies. For my small hospital, we had 7 people doing this averaging $85-$90K per year each.
And don’t get me started on unfunded care. Since we live in Texas, which has not expanded Medicaid, there are a ton of people who end up in the hospital with no insurance and who will never pay a cent because they literally can’t. Hospitals try to make up that funding gap by raising rates on everyone who does pay. We’re already paying for other people’s healthcare this way, I wish we would just nationalize health insurance and eliminate insurance companies entirely.
