Comment by omnimus
2 days ago
The insurer margins can be whatever small but when the same company also owns the hospital and drug distribution it doesnt matter.
Somebody in the process makes extreme margins.
Also americans cant be at same time avoiding going to hospital because of costs and “still get far more services than most of their counterparts in other countries”
Believe it or not there are countries where there is mandatory health insurance (your employer or you or state have to pay it) and doctors dont look at costs because they dont really know them. They for sure try to not be wasteful but nobody is second guessing obviously best treatment because it costs 40% more.
> doctors dont look at costs because they dont really know them
They know enough to prescribe only the pre-approved drugs and they know that things will happen at due time when the already budgeted people and equipment are available.
Sure they prescribe pre-approved drugs. They even prefer some brands which they know or are “sponsored by”. But afaik they dont care if they prescribe something expensive because it doesnt cost them anything.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/medicines-2/items-which-should-no...
Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care
This policy guidance includes medicines:
[…]
that are clinically effective but not the most cost-effective intervention available
that are clinically effective but deemed a low priority for NHS funding.
Prescribers are advised that no new patients should be started on these items, that they should be deprescribed for current patients and that, where possible, suitable alternatives should be identified for patients.
You are just making things up to fit what you already believe. We have a few huge publicly traded companies in this space that file with the SEC but reality is not what you are interested in.
What i am making up? That US healthcare has high margins?
“ study from Yale School of Medicine (YSM) found that large U.S. health care corporations spent 95% of their net income — totaling $2.6 trillion — on shareholder payouts over the past two decades, raising questions about industry priorities and their impact on patient care and affordability”