Thread: How Will We Reduce Health Care Costs?

The administration has been pushing for health care hard in recent days, and they keep harping on the fact that they want to help reduce health care costs to everyone. Given this goal, let's examine a few of the things that are in the health care package going through congress now to see how this will affect health care prices.

Preventing health insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
Health insurance companies deny coverage for pre-existing conditions in order to reduce costs. If this practice is outlawed, costs for insurance companies will greatly increase. This increase in costs will be reflected by an increase in prices.

Mandate insurance for everyone.
One provision of the bill now in the senate mandates that everyone must get health insurance and that all employers must pay for health insurance. With more people having health insurance, there will be more people seeing the doctor. This increase in demand will lead to increased prices very quickly. There are simply not enough people going into the medical professions to keep up with this increase in demand.

Helping pay for the plan by levying a tax on health insurance companies.
As with the first point, higher costs equal higher prices.

Any other parts of the plan that you can see raising or reducing health care costs?

I know that when health care costs greatly increase over the next few years due to these changes, the rise in costs will be blamed on the greedy insurance companies. That will likely lead to more regulations and price controls, which will lead to rationing, and eventually the entire system becomes socialized.

Sure the plan will raise the cost of private health insurance, thats what they
want, Obama always wanted single payer. As prices go up people will be
funneled into choosing the government option that has unfair advantages.

Tort reform and the disbanding of the HMO/managed care system...just as DR. Ron Paul stated time and time again. That is the ONLY way to reduce health care costs. Why would anyone trust their health to the government....an organization who can't even balance it's OWN checkbook?!

Originally Posted by freethinkr

The administration ... want to help reduce health care costs to everyone.

The admin is doing nothing to reduce costs. The way costs are reduced are really quite simple:

1. competition: allow PAs to have their own scripts for schedule 4&5 drugs
2. allow the PA to have their own shop for rule based treatment...and support this with no lawsuits (rule based medicine hasn't been successfully sued)
3. tort reform, this has got to happen, else under the Obama proposals, the government assumes this cost
4. higher rate of return for research dollars by pharmas
5. allowances for hospitals to do cost sharing and load balencing
6. establish, quickly, a standard format for medical records. We all carry thumbdrives.
7. allow medical equipment and drugs to get approval sooner. Yeah, a few people may die, but there have to be trade offs.

Well we could kill off all the baby boomers?

Sorry, is that not already the plan?

Want to reduce health care costs? One word: Prevention. One of the cheapest, easiest and most effective ways of preventing diseases if by the patient participating in a structured wellness program tailored to their medical history, physiology and age.

It works.

Originally Posted by Bourne

Want to reduce health care costs? One word: Prevention. One of the cheapest, easiest and most effective ways of preventing diseases if by the patient participating in a structured wellness program tailored to their medical history, physiology and age.

It works.

If you think there is some way to majorly reduce costs for insurance companies that they have overlooked, why don't you go sell your idea? If it's really the best way to go about things and few are doing it, the profits will be very high until others catch on. That's how capitalism works. Put your money where your mouth is.

Originally Posted by ArizonaIrish

The admin is doing nothing to reduce costs. The way costs are reduced are really quite simple:

...

Your quoting of my phrase left out words that completely changes the meaning of the sentence. I said that the administration says they want to reduce costs, not that they actually want to reduce costs. I really doubt they want to reduce costs, or they wouldn't be doing these things.

Originally Posted by freethinkr

If you think there is some way to majorly reduce costs for insurance companies that they have overlooked, why don't you go sell your idea? If it's really the best way to go about things and few are doing it, the profits will be very high until others catch on. That's how capitalism works. Put your money where your mouth is.

The concept of prevetative medicine via wellness planning is already being utilized.

It works.

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