[quote=carli]
I’m not one to defend hospitals or insurance companies in general, but part of the reason that hospitals charge their uninsured/cash patients less than their negotiated rates w/insurers is not because they’re being kind or feel they can gouge consumers who have insurance, but because they can write this deficit off. In other words, we’re all paying for it. And to make matters worse, built in to the rates that hospitals and other providers negotiate with the insurers (which show up in our premiums) is this write-off. So it all comes around in several ways. But at least the Affordable Care Act caps insurers’ MCR (Medical Cost Ratio), which stipulates how much profit over medical and admin expenses they can take.[/quote]
Technically it should be a crime for hospitals to charge different amount to different people for the same procedures. The Clayton Act from 1914 makes it illegal to practice price discrimination yet that’s what hospitals and medical providers do everyday.
The Sherman act should also be used against the pharmaceutical companies. They set different prices in different countries and then artificially prevent foreign trade where I could go buy the drugs in another country and then bring them here to use or to sell. Obviously the government enables this behavior and pharma’s lobbying gets the government to crave out exceptions to the Sherman act. All you’d have to do to fix a lot of the drug prices is to enforce the Sherman act on the pharma companies. Drugs would cost less here and they’d cost more in other countries until there was some sort of equilibrium.
Thirdly why aren’t there consumer protection laws that apply to medical services. If you go to the mechanic they have to give you a written estimate of the price. They can’t just demand that you pay them $2,000 to get your car back. Why aren’t medical providers held to this same regard when it comes to routine services. I understand emergency situations are somewhat different.
