Health insurance at its core is very simple. You put money in, you go to doctor, insurance pay doctor. But in the USA, the insurance denies everything they possibly can. Money put in doesn’t ever see a doctor or your health costs, it goes right to the stockholders…

So why doesn’t someone just make a non-profit health insurance company where there’s no stock, no executives, just public servants and aggressive price negotiation where your medical bills are actually paid with the money put in?

  • kiterios@lemmy.world
    5·
    23 hours ago

    And the more you dig into it, the worse it gets. That price discrepancy exists at the provider level too.

    • You have a health issue and need treatment.
    • The treatment cost the Dr $200 to perform.
    • The list price for the treatment is $500.
    • The big insurer uses the weight of their customer base to negotiate with the Dr and the agree to pay $300 for the treatment. If the doctor doesn’t accept, then they’re out of network and can’t get patients.
    • The plucky startup co-op doesn’t have the same negotiating leverage, so they have to pay $400 for the treatment.
    • The co-op is going to cost more to operate, and now the real monthly cost you have to pay with the co-op is $700 instead of $600.

    And it gets worse.

    This video is a nice little primer about how the insurer might not even pay that $300 they agreed to, how that let’s them profit further on the treatment while creating financial pressure on healthcare providers, and how your Dr may end up being owned by the insurer, further reducing the ability of a new co-op to compete.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      22 hours ago

      Everything with “middle men” is like that.

      Numbers get inflated then discounted.

      It’s why it’s present at every step of capitalism, at every step someone takes a cut, so the price is inflated, then “discounted” to what consumers are willing to pay which is still an insane profit margin.