Not sure if anyone’s read this, or any article like it, but it’s pretty interesting.
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2008/07/doctors-who-don.html
I read a long time ago about surgeons who don’t take any kind of insurance, and most of them make in the millions per year by doing so. And not by charging more money, but by being able to see more patients on their own schedule and by using their own methods of treatment. It’s interesting that a lot of patients can actually pay vastly less money per year on healthcare without using insurance, just as long as they’re willing to take the risk of not having a heart attack or another kind of healthcare tragedy.
Of course I would pay much less than my out of pocket expenses plus my money spent for insurance if I just paid for stuff myself. My company pays US $8000 per employee, add in $1500 of my own and you get $9500 per year for me. Of course I get nowhere near $9500 worth of medicine. The whole insurance business is a giant racket with Medicare and Medicaid as the base. The author of the article who is probably afraid of the government did not mention that the whole sick dimented pricing system through AMA codes through the twin towers of Medicare and Medicaid to the insurance companies. Remove the towers and the insurers have much less pull and will cease to be able to pile on the paperwork.
Insurance is not healthcare and if you remove the paper work and paper workers then you dramatically reduce costs.
Also, well prior to this article, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma City has for years posted cash prices for their services on the internet.
And the author does not bring up using other people to do all the dirty work so doctors can do their jobs. The author mentions how bad it is for doctors not to get paid to renew prescriptions and what not. Why have them do this? Why not have nurses and physician assistants do these tasks. Why have a prescription system at all?