An MRI costs $1,145 in America and $138 in Switzerland. But Medicare could change that. - Vox
Just saw this article Ezra Klein wrote, about capping payments similar to Medicare for the private health insurance market. He even acknowledges this could bring the system to single payor, has the potential...
Some examples from average pricing data reported by insurers in different countries:
1) A knee replacement costs $25,398 in America and $12,589 in the Netherlands.
2) A standard delivery costs $10,002 in America and $2,251 in Spain.
3) An MRI costs $1,145 in America and $138 in Switzerland.
So Skinner, Fisher, and Weinstein want to cap payments at 125 percent of what Medicare pays. This doesn't necessarily bring prices down so much as it brings the variation in prices down. This is a plan to help the people who end up getting truly gouged — it will mean an end, for instance, to uninsured patients being charged 300 percent of what Medicare pays for an appendectomy.
The health industry would freak out, of course, because once prices are capped at 125 percent of Medicare's rates, they know it's a small step to bring them down to 123 percent, or 117 percent, or 115 percent. The 125 percent plan would be a step towards All Payer Rate Setting — which is, more or less, a way of merging the savings of single-payer system with a lot of private insurers.
But that's a good thing. Either it'll force the health-care sector to get serious about setting up that hoped-for "more transparent system where consumers can choose easily based on reliable quality and price measures," or it'll show that that system isn't possible, and we should just do what every other industrialized country does and have the government set health-care prices.
Just saw this article Ezra Klein wrote, about capping payments similar to Medicare for the private health insurance market. He even acknowledges this could bring the system to single payor, has the potential...
Some examples from average pricing data reported by insurers in different countries:
1) A knee replacement costs $25,398 in America and $12,589 in the Netherlands.
2) A standard delivery costs $10,002 in America and $2,251 in Spain.
3) An MRI costs $1,145 in America and $138 in Switzerland.
So Skinner, Fisher, and Weinstein want to cap payments at 125 percent of what Medicare pays. This doesn't necessarily bring prices down so much as it brings the variation in prices down. This is a plan to help the people who end up getting truly gouged — it will mean an end, for instance, to uninsured patients being charged 300 percent of what Medicare pays for an appendectomy.
The health industry would freak out, of course, because once prices are capped at 125 percent of Medicare's rates, they know it's a small step to bring them down to 123 percent, or 117 percent, or 115 percent. The 125 percent plan would be a step towards All Payer Rate Setting — which is, more or less, a way of merging the savings of single-payer system with a lot of private insurers.
But that's a good thing. Either it'll force the health-care sector to get serious about setting up that hoped-for "more transparent system where consumers can choose easily based on reliable quality and price measures," or it'll show that that system isn't possible, and we should just do what every other industrialized country does and have the government set health-care prices.
