alt Hacker News> but if you dropped all government funding of healthcare tomorrow, healthcare plans would get cheaper.
I doubt it. Hospitals charge $15 for a single pill of Tylenol because they know insurance will pay for it, and that includes private insurance.
The best thing we could do is ditch the private healthcare industry to the extent that the rest of the first world has and cover everyone with government plans. Those plans can then negotiate for much better prices and refuse the kinds of insane charges we're seeing. The cost of plans would also drop because prices would be spread out over every taxpayer. Having primarily a single provider for insurance would make everything easier and less expensive for hospitals and doctors offices too.
The billions in profits private healthcare companies rake in all comes at the expense of everyone else one way or another and they have every incentive to make as much money in profit as they can. Without that excess fortune in profits being skimmed off and stuffed into pockets a government funded insurance plan which covered everyone could get the job done taking in closer to what it actually costs to deliver the services we want and no more.
Replies
> Hospitals charge $15 for a single pill of Tylenol because they know insurance will pay for it
It’s more they know insurance won’t pay for it, and negotiate discounts based off the “retail” price. Although at this point it’s gotten so ridiculously convoluted and cross-subsidized that I doubt even the insurance company or hospital knows what the actual paid amount for a Tylenol will end up being until months after the fact.
You don't need the insurance industry sticking their dick in most of the business they do. Insurance is for the foreseeable but unforecastable, not for routine things.
The additional overhead is substantial and adds huge marginal cost for routine things and say nothing of the principal-agent problem