I’ve been thinking about Health Care and our free market capitalist solution. I don’t think its fundamentally flawed the way some talking heads do, but I do think we’ve never made an official strategy that recognizes that we are using a capitalist system to run health care. So my idea of reform, with the understanding that knowledgeable consumers in a free market can drive down costs, is to increase transparency in the PRICE of health care. If you feel sick and go to the ER; they’ll barrage you with tests as per normal and run you to do a blood test, MRI, and CT Scan for your mild case of the sniffles. To make the prices more transparent, someone will say to you beforehand, “This test will cost you or your insurance company $x”. Even if insurance is footing the bill, you now known how much these things really cost. Ideally, more people would then be informed as to their choice AND have a CONTEXT to start the conversation about alternatives. Further on, as more people decide they don’t need MRI tests, there will be less demand for the MRI’s and the price would subsequently go down.
I welcome your comments.
i look at all the bills and pay money, but I can’t tell you how much the tests cost – and I pay for the exact same ones more than twice a year…