Insurance will pay for it!
How often have you heard in response to a broken bone or a dented fender: "Insurance will pay for it"? People say this as a way of saying the cost of fixing a problem is no problem; it won't be out of their pockets.
But it is out of their pockets in higher premiums and even higher taxes.
People go to the doctor for things that might go away on their own, but "insurance will pay for it." People go the doctor for minor conditions for things that aren't very serious and with which they aren't bothered that much, but "insurance will pay for it."
Doctors will perform procedures on minor conditions because a patient doesn't have to worry about the cost. In fact, doctors often don't ask if a patient wants the procedure done; they say, "I'm going to do such and such". After all, "insurance will pay for it."
Often, insurance doesn't pay for it. Insurance pays part of the stated cost. Big insurance companies negotiate prices as discounts. "We'll include your health care facility in our coverage if you give us an xx% discount." So it is in the interest of health care providers to keep their official prices high in order to be sure their actual prices give them an adequate compensation.
Of course, the more people use insurance, the higher the premiums become. The insurers have to raise enough money to cover all the claims and still make a profit.
You can argue about how insurance executives are overpaid, how doctors are overpaid, and how many inefficiencies there are in health care, but the basic fact is that the less people really make price-benefit choices, the higher the costs will be.
This latter point is the argument that promoters of health savings accounts and patient choice make. If people buy their health care on rational economic choices, the costs will be brought under control.
Unfortunately, rational economic choice for health care is not like rational economic choice for a new TV or car or for what kind of vacation one will have.
If you are injured in a car accident and rescued while unconscious, health care providers are going to give you the best care they know. Even if you are conscious, will you be thinking clearly?
What if your child suddenly becomes gravely ill? Are you going to spend the time to research what doctors can give the most cost effective care? No, you are either going to see the doctors you already know or you are going to see the closest doctor.
We are not going to solve our "health care crisis" until a sufficient number of hard-hearted patient choice advocates and a sufficient number of soft-hearted "damn the true cost" advocates discuss all of these issues rather than grandstand.
