SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Dayuhan who wrote (25042)9/25/1998 12:22:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
The thing with cost controls -
You can institute price controls, but I'm not sure you can really dictate cost. Except in egregious circumstances where one link of the "value chain" (howzat for a '90s euphemism!) is really, really bad.
Price controls simply mean that the cost (which will remain more or less the same, because medical machinery is expensive even in an open market, and while doctors get big pay they lose most of it to malpractice insurance and other professional maintenance fees) will have to be buttressed from outside the system. This means government healthcare to me. Assuming no spectacular mismanagement, this becomes a cost-sharing scheme. While insurance rates will be held in check, and expensive chronic treatments will be available on a need basis (in the most socialized case I can come up with) the cash flow will still be awesome. Now it will be undisguised tax dollars though. The cost and thus price of insurance will be spread across the entire tax base.
Fair? Idunno. The principles of compassion vs. economic health haven't duked it out in my head yet.
In all this, I'm assuming that healthcare in the USA is more or less efficiently priced - with no more than say 20% total of the price being "fat", like monopoly pricing on components or real high admin salaries. (I'll have to go and look at what typical HMO earnings vs. cash flows are. Anyone have figures handy?)
Even at the gov't level, there are those who recognize that the one way to rein in costs is to place conditions on who gets what services. The state of Oregon, one of the most "liberal" states on the Union, was on the news a few years back for threatening to institute a "triage" system to stanch the hemorrhage of state Medicare-type monies. There wasn't enough to go around.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News