How will the government lower the cost of healthcare?

[The Booman]

We keep hearing about Medicare for all because private health coverage is too expensive and the government can do it more efficiently that the free market. How will the government make it cheaper?

Specifics please.

[Peter1469]

Cut qualities factors. Like no more single rooms that look like a hotel room with space for a loved one and a private bathroom w/ shower.

Cut the free wifi- that is a needless expense for a hospital and very expensive.

Less expensive medical equipment and testing. My ex-MiL had to go to the emergency room while we were in Rome. No expensive equipment, no expensive tests. It was like medicine in the 1950s. But hey, it was free. Sell off the excess MRIs. We have more MRIs in Northern VA, than Canada has. That is expensive.

Longer wait times to control costs.

Get a handle on the compensation for doctors. Especially the dam specialists. Slash their salaries and get these entitled $#@!s back into general medicine.

[BaghdadBob]

Death panels.



(not a joke)

[MMC]

I see the leftness don't have much to come up with. Other than government is the answer.

[Peter1469]

Oh, cut quality of life procedures for old people. No hip replacement, etc. That is what nations with free health care do.

Much of what makes US health care so expensive is our elderly care- stuff other nations just don't do.

[Torus34]

We keep hearing about Medicare for all because private health coverage is too expensive and the government can do it more efficiently that the free market. How will the government make it cheaper? Specifics, please.

Let's start with just two possibilities.

First, drug costs. It doesn't take much research to find out that we in the US pay more, often much more, for drugs than do those in many other countries. The present mantra of 'fair share' suggests that if the federal government legislates drug prices intelligently, the drug companies will increase the prices for those drugs overseas. The companies will still have good bottom lines, but it will cost us here in the US less to support them.

Next, medical system, writ large, emphasis. Again, a bit of digging will show that it's much cheaper to deal with a number of diseases early on rather than in their later and sometimes fatal stages. Public awareness can be heightened and access to initial medical screening and treatment can be made more available. It's worth noting that such a campaign has no attractiveness for the folks in private industry. There's no way at present to make money setting up and running a program that's essentially a public service. That's the province of the voice of the people, expressed as ... government.

Regards, stay safe 'n well. Remember the Big 3: masks, hand washing and physical distancing.

[barb012]

They will eliminate all health insurance companies from the system and go back to the old system where government employees handle all claims submitted by providers of health services. It is a whole lot cheaper for government to provide a health coverage card to the people then it is to pay a monthly premium to the insurance companies that currently handle all the people on Medicaid and Medicare.

[Collateral Damage]

Let's start with just two possibilities.
First, drug costs. It doesn't take much research to find out that we in the US pay more, often much more, for drugs than do those in many other countries. The present mantra of 'fair share' suggests that if the federal government legislates drug prices intelligently, the drug companies will increase the prices for those drugs overseas. The companies will still have good bottom lines, but it will cost us here in the US less to support them.
Next, medical system, writ large, emphasis. Again, a bit of digging will show that it's much cheaper to deal with a number of diseases early on rather than in their later, and sometimes fatal stages. Public awareness can be heightened and access to initial medical screening and treatment can be made more available.
Regards, stay safe 'n well. Remember the Big 3: masks, hand washing and physical distancing.

Serious question, for discussion. How do you feel about sliding scale clinics in underserved areas, in lieu of ER visits that clog the system?

Have part of the staffing of these clinics be Drs time, for reduction of their student loans for med school? Reduced costs for diagnostic services, prescriptions and medical equipment.

All this, instead of dumping everybody into a program run by a highly inefficient government bureaucracy.

[barb012]

The cost of healthcare services, drug cost doesn't cost that much if people were educated enough to actually look at their explanation of benefits at the cost in allowable charges
from their plan. This is the actual cost of healthcare. It is not the sticker price that they all want us to focus on. The sticker price only has real meaning if you do not have health coverage and do not understand that people with coverage never pay this amount for health services.

[Peter1469]

Careful with trying to regulate drug costs- it could hamper research into new drugs.

Let's start with just two possibilities.

First, drug costs. It doesn't take much research to find out that we in the US pay more, often much more, for drugs than do those in many other countries. The present mantra of 'fair share' suggests that if the federal government legislates drug prices intelligently, the drug companies will increase the prices for those drugs overseas. The companies will still have good bottom lines, but it will cost us here in the US less to support them.

Next, medical system, writ large, emphasis. Again, a bit of digging will show that it's much cheaper to deal with a number of diseases early on rather than in their later and sometimes fatal stages. Public awareness can be heightened and access to initial medical screening and treatment can be made more available. It's worth noting that such a campaign has no attractiveness for the folks in private industry. There's no way at present to make money setting up and running a program that's essentially a public service. That's the province of the voice of the people, expressed as ... government.

Regards, stay safe 'n well. Remember the Big 3: masks, hand washing and physical distancing.