I’ve written about medical debt in the past, explaining that not all medical debt is bad. However, medical debt is growing due to Obamacare. I’ve also explained that medical debt has many causes and it’s not always a lack of money. People sometimes refuse to pay because they think their bill is wrong (it often is). Or patients don’t pay outstanding bills because they believe their health plan is liable for the balance. This is just my opinion, but I suspect some outstanding medical debts are because patients think the bill is unfair.
Category: Single-Payer/Medicare-for-All
Should We Spend Our Entire GDP on Health Care?
How much medical care does society owe Americans that they could not otherwise afford? It’s not a philosophical question, such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. This question plays out every day.
CBO: Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Not Very Innovative
The poorly named Affordable Care Act created the office of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). As Joe Albanese explains in National Review the new agency’s mission
…is to test new ways of paying for and delivering health-care services in federal health programs through pilot programs called “models.” These models are required by law to reduce costs and/or improve quality of care, which they pursue by enacting major policy changes.
Should Insurers Use AI to Manage Care? Yes, but with Checks & Balances
Many states have passed laws limiting prior authorization. Physicians hate prior authorization and claim insurers and health plans use it to ration care. I tend to be more sympathetic to prior authorization because in an industry where patients are insulated from the cost of their care, there needs to be some checks and balances over unnecessary care and care that is unnecessarily expensive. I often tell the story about the time my wife unknowingly tried to schedule a CT scan at a hospital outpatient clinic near our house.