Re: Go get'um Sarah!

Alex W wrote:
On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:32:03 -0400, Tony wrote:

Alex W wrote:
On Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:35:18 -0700, Tom S. wrote:

Tony wrote:
Alex W wrote:
inflation.
Which is not what is happening with healtchare cost; if it
were, healthcare would not be a political issue at all.
So why do you think health care costs are outstripping inflation? When that happens it usually indicates tampering with market forces.
Right behind medical care inflation is 'higher education' at roughly three times the inflation rate.

Best analysis puts the cause as the tons money being pumped into student loans along with the spiraling standards. Now Obeyme wants to kick another $TRILLION into medical care?

That'll "fix" medicine like they "fixed" FannieMae.
That's as much a failure of "free markets" as anything else.
If you are free to charge as much as the market will bear,
and if the market is both captive (sick people do not count
the cost of getting better) and relatively insensitive to
price -- prices will rise and rise.
You're forgetting, if there are many doctors competing for the same patients competition fosters lowering of prices. You can't count medicine as a free market because of all the onerous regulations imposed by government and the need to protect yourself from predatory lawyers and their clients.

So as soon as medicine becomes a free market, we can talk.

Competition will lower doctor's prices? How is that
supposed to work?

-- "Hello, I'm calling about your charges for setting a
broken leg. Please tell me your best offer, and know that
if I don't like your price I'll take my custom down the road
to Dr Jones -- but make it snappy, this hurts like hell."

It works like this, Alex:

Me: "I need to have a broken leg set, Dr. Can you do it for me?"

Dr.: "Sure, come right in."

Dr.: "That will be $5000"

Me: "$5000?!?!?!"

Dr: "Yes, $5000"

I pay the $5000, then write an editorial and send it to the paper, and tell all of my friends and family and co-workers and people I meet on the street, not to go to Dr. X, because he's a thief.

-- "Doctor, I need some drugs for my acute gastro-enteritis
and I need them RIGHT NOW, but I'm not prepared to spend
more than $50."

-- "Yes, I know you are an ambulance and I am sure you are
fully qualified to stabilise my wife's condition before
taking her to the hospital, but I am waiting for Acme
Ambulances. They do the same job for $100 less."

Price pressures such as you propose can only exist for
standardised services and products that are elective and
non-urgent, such as annual check-ups, a comprehensive
blood-test or infant vaccination. The moment you have a
direct medical need, you can forget about competition or
pressure on prices.

No, the price pressures happen after the fact, by affecting the doctor's reputation (which is the life-blood of his practice). Also, if most of the Dr.s locally charge a relatively lot of money, and enterprising Dr. can come into town and set up a clinic charging less and attracting more of the lower income folks.

This is made impossible by insulating the consumer from the cost of the service.

Secondly, any pressure on pricing is intermediate and
therefore much reduced by virtue of the insurance acting as
a buffer. Much of the time, people simply do not know the
actual cost of their medical care and thus do not care; if
they do know, they will often not care because they feel
that this is a matter for the insurance to resolve, not
them. Any genuine pressure to put a check on the cost
spiral should therefore be expected from theside of the
insurers -- and they have found that most of the time, they
can cover their rising cost the easy way, by squeezing
higher premiums out of individuals and their employers.

So you can save money by cutting out the middle man and going directly to the Dr. with your dollars for day to day medical needs.
.

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