re: #572 EmmmieG

I am “those people” and I’m not saying they’re the problem, I’m saying the problem is that we have no incentive to be frugal. No incentive to seek out the lowest cost for the best product, like we normally do.

You’ll have to actually connect that to being a problem. I’m really unclear on what argument you’re making. Are you saying the cost of health care is inflated by doctors and hospitals because consumers don’t exercise discretion in purchasing?

I don’t even know what my doctor charges for a check-up. The prices are different for self-pay, insurance, and medicare anyway.

All true: but what does that have to do with the subject under discussion?

As for deductibles, it’s only an incentive to be frugal if it’s a percentage.

A ‘deductible’ is an amount that the person is responsible for before insurance pays a dime. For example, I have a $5000 deductible. I am solely responsible for the first $5,000 of medical expenses I incur in a given year.

My co-pay is a set amount, regardless of the cost of service. I remember a friend saying years ago, who had percentage insurance, that if she had known what cost a certain service was, she would have gone without.

The number of medical procedures that fall into this area are rather low. Generally, if you need a medical procedure, you need it.

My comments about the Iron Curtain have to do with the idea of command economies and government monopolies.

Well, that’s kind of facile, then, isn’t it? You said you were comparing the Iron Curtain economies to other economies, but all of the other first-world economies in the world, aside from us, have Universal Health Care. And they are not command economies.

Price caps cause shortages.

But apparently you think prices are artificially inflated due to consumers not exercising discretion in what they buy, so how do you reconcile those two beliefs?