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re: Is healthcare coverage a right?

Posted on 3/7/17 at 11:44 pm to
Posted by bonhoeffer45
Member since Jul 2016
4367 posts
Posted on 3/7/17 at 11:44 pm to
quote:

Do you have an economic argument, or just bleeting aimlessly?




Markets typically function best with minimal information asymmetry and the consumer not suffering from imperfect information when making decisions. I.E. you want highly informed people making smart, objectively rational choices.

That logic for instance is where the promise from proponents of High-Deductible Health Plans comes from. Who argue that making consumers have more skin in the game will incentivize them to make wiser healthcare decisions and thus will reduce costs and drive down healthcare prices. On the first point, they do reduce costs, but the overwhelming consensus has been that on the second, key point, what actually happens is cost savings are achieved by people consuming less essential and nonessential care. Making short-term decisions that are more costly long-term, not driving prices down and not producing consumer optimization like hoped : LINK


And this is deeper then just a lack of price transparency like some types of reformers argue. Because you are essentially asking consumers to be their own doctor. Something even actual doctors struggle to do when deciding on when to seek or not seek care: LINK

This is also just addressing routine care, emergency care is another beast entiriely. Since you aren't exactly in a state to just shop around for a bit.
This post was edited on 3/7/17 at 11:54 pm
Posted by Taxing Authority
Houston
Member since Feb 2010
57455 posts
Posted on 3/8/17 at 1:10 am to
quote:

Making short-term decisions that are more costly long-term, not driving prices down and not producing consumer optimization like hoped
There is a ton of research debunking that.

quote:

Because you are essentially asking consumers to be their own doctor. Something even actual doctors struggle to do when deciding on when to seek or not seek care
None of that frees medicine from the bounds of economics. Because something is complex does not mean it's exempt from reality.

quote:

This is also just addressing routine care, emergency care is another beast entiriely. Since you aren't exactly in a state to just shop around for a bit.
Silly. Most people don't shop for tow truck divers when their car is broken. That doesn't mean tow trucks don't operate in a competitive economic environment.

As for emergency services... when you introduce third-party payors that largely per-negotiate prices long before you ever turn up in the ED--there is plenty of shopping going on.
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