Quote:
Originally Posted by nailer
How is cost of treatment determined under a single payer system, by each practicing physician and hospital, or by the single payer? Removing the insurance companies will significantly reduce costs, but health care is basically an inelastic demand in that if one needs a surgery to stay alive one will pay whatever the market will bear. Hospitals have gone corporate as have physicians, won't the drive to maximize profit remain?
|
As things are now, payments are made on the basis of what the insurer considers "usual and customary". I can only think that payments made by a single payer would adhere to a similar standard. I think too that, since the profit motive wouldn't be operating in single payer, there would be less of a tendency for the payer to refuse to cover more effective but more expensive procedures, medications, protocols, etc.
John