I've said it before, but if I were allowed to make one rule in the current healthcare landscape it would be "consistent pricing". No charging different prices depending on who is paying.
I also wonder what a world where we removed almost all medical regulation would look like.we would at least get true competitive market dynamics. Why do I know exactly what I’ll pay at mcdonalds, but not what I’ll pay for a medical procesure?
Instead we have just enough regulation to prevent healthy market dynamics, but not enough to have a single payer type system
this seems like a very concise summary of the problem. and insurance companies see the profits of this no-mans land
Right now, insurers typically reimburse higher for larger practices (due to volume), but smaller rural providers can have amazing leverage as well because they are the only game in town. Generally, the smaller providers would get reimbursed less.
If you force insurers to have only one "price", then they are going to set their reimbursement rates for the largest customers which would also apply to the smaller customers (so they'd get a bump).
Along these lines, POST THE DAMN PRICES ON A MENU FOR EVERYONE TO LOOK AT AND MAKE CHOICES!