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Why has the cost of health care in the US continued to grow faster than the cost of inflation?
This is probably controversial, but from my life experiences and reading--in no particular order:
1) Having doctor offices code and bill the insurance company: we used to pay up front and then file a claim ourselves. Now the doctors pay medical coders and billers and the insurance companies have a parallel organization that approves and disapproves claims.
2) Health Maintenance Organizations introduced the "co-pay," teaching people that medical care and tests don't cost much. True costs of care are not evident.
3) Insurance companies used to invest premium dollars, earning a decent return where they could make money that way. Insurance companies began to see premiums as a profit center and started to raise rates. Once rates increased in higher percentages, the focus was on premiums, pre-existing conditions and maximum coverage amounts to increase profits. They also play with the cash flow, delaying payments to doctors while enjoying the dividends of invested monies.
My reading of health care reform is that some of these expenses that do us no good will fade and that we will actually save money by being able to provide preventive care to uninsured people that we are treating in urgent care and emergency rooms and paying for by taxes. It remains to be seen how this will truly work, but the current system is not cost effective at 16% of our GNP.
By the way, where I work, the highest cost insurance program is the HMO. It has the highest premiums. Most people who have it only go to the doctor once or twice a year, so they are paying a lot of money for that privilege of paying low copays.
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What has the author C Eugene Steuerle written?
C. Eugene Steuerle has written: 'Taxes, loans and inflation' -- subject(s): Income tax, Capital levy, Loans, United Sates, Effect of inflation on, Effects of inflation on, United States 'Economic effects of health reform' -- subject(s): Health Insurance, Health care reform, Insurance, Health, Medical care, Medical policy, Public opinion
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