66. Time For Medical Price Reform To Help Employers

American healthcare is in dire need of price reform. Without it, employers are significantly disadvantaged. Two fixes would help American competitiveness a great deal.

 

About The Podcast:

 

Millions of Americans feel confused and frustrated in their search for quality healthcare coverage.

 

Between out-of-control costs, countless inefficiencies, a lack of affordable universal access, and little focus on wellness and prevention, the system is clearly in dire need of change.

 

Hosted by healthcare policy and technology expert Marc S. Ryan, the Healthcare Labyrinth Podcast offers accessible, incisive deep dives on the most pressing issues and events in American healthcare.

 

Marc seeks to help Americans become wiser consumers and navigate the healthcare maze with more confidence and certainty through The Healthcare Labyrinth website and his book of the same name.

 

Marc is an unconventional Republican who believes that affordable universal access is a wise and prudent investment. He recommends common-sense solutions to reform American healthcare.

 

Tune in every week as Marc examines the latest developments in the space, offering analysis, insights, and predictions on the changing state of healthcare in America.

 

About The Episode:

 

On this episode, Marc discusses how American healthcare is in dire need of price reform. Without it, employers are significantly disadvantaged. Two fixes would help American competitiveness a great deal.

 

Key Takeaways:  

 

America has the only employer-driven healthcare system in the developed world.

 

This puts American companies at a significant disadvantage in terms of competitiveness as they pay the lion’s share of healthcare even with tax deductibility of healthcare expenses.

 

No one really wants to abandon that system right now. Most people like it and our productivity helps close the competitiveness gap.

 

But rising healthcare costs are hurting our competitiveness.

 

Two things could be done.

 

While providers could be more efficient there is some evidence that government programs tend to under-reimburse.

 

So first, adopting uniform pricing across lines of business would stop a cost-shift to the employer world.

 

The cost-shift is actually encouraged both by providers as well as health plans given how most employer coverage is funded in the nation.

 

This would mean some additional spending on the part of government programs, but overall costs would be more rationale and come down over time.

 

Second, site neutral payments should also be adopted in Medicare as this would lower costs in the employer and commercial world as well. Commercial payments are primarily based on Medicare.

 

Both of these moves would encourage efficiency in the system and change providers’ and health plans’ behavior. No longer would they concentrate on gaming price across lines of businesses. They would have to focus on efficiency.

 

Without these changes, employer coverage will become more and more expensive, business will become less competitive, and more of the burden will be shifted to Americans who will increasingly be unable to afford healthcare and to access the system.

 

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The Healthcare Labyrinth: A Guide to Navigating Health Plans and Fixing American Health Insurance