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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Little Joe who wrote (9659)	2/18/2012 11:02:29 AM
From: Bread Upon The Water	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

To my way of thinking the only way to cover everyone and to have it semi affordable is to compel people to join. Otherwise insurance companies will medically discriminate and price people out of coverage as they will opt for healthy ones to insure. Then we end up paying for poorer coverage/treatment anyway thru the overuse of the emergency room and the bills passed onto the rest of us. The universal compulsory system is designed to address this--imperfectly as it exists. If a way around the "compulsion" necessary to insure a large enough pool and coverage can be found I'm all ears.

To: Little Joe who wrote (9659)	2/18/2012 11:32:57 AM
From: sm1th	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

I believe Drs. could be required to post prices in plain English for the most common services they provide In general the list price is irrelevant, and only paid by someone uninsured and paying themselves. Every insurance company negotiates prices with each provider. In some cases, the provider has all of the leverage in others the insurer does. We had a situation about a year ago where the 3rd largest insurer in the state (Tufts Health plan) refused the payment schedule demanded by the largest hospital group (Partners Health Care). After a lot of threats, the insurer caved, they couldn't afford to lose access to several of the state's best hospitals. If it had been Blue Cross, the outcome would probably have been reversed, since no hospital could give up 60% of the population.