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Every year, costs and prices of healthcare rise by double digits. From 1998 til now, the average increase in healthcare costs has been 8% per annum. The economy, total GDP, has increased by 2% a year average over the same period, as expressed in dollar monetary growth. Much of that ‘growth’ has simply been printing of money, not productivity growth in the real economy.
Obamacare said that insurers had to cover conditions that were already diagnosed before a policy gets taken out. Insurance used to be about insuring future events. Insurers had to drive up policy costs to cover these new exposures. Medical care in the US is now racketeering. Costs are never quoted in advance of treatment. You have to commit to treatment and then find out the costs which insurers must pay at the end, once treatment is over.
It should be cheaper to insure yourself against cancer, than insuring your car. Yet doctors won’t quote prices so no one can shop around. Prices spiral on up. Insurers have to meet the costs. If the system was changed back to how it was, and doctors had to quote prices, the costs would tumble by maybe 90%.
If the government did that, healthcare would go back to 3% of GDP. There would be a huge economic recession.
The best thing is to pay cash for all medical treatment, shop around yourself and not seek insurance.
Hospitals can charge you for treating you for hospital acquired infections under insurance. If that was stopped, health care standards would improve. By seeking fixed price treatments from cash hospitals, you will find much higher standards of care taken to stop you getting sick.