Since the health care sector is one of the largest political donors, elected officials have little incentive to fix anything, so they nibble at the edges and call it reform.
[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/15/1193754...
My primary care physician did this a couple of years ago. He still works at the practice and I still see him. When I asked him why he sold, he said he wants to do what he loves - practice medicine - not spend most of his time working with insurance companies.
The worst part is all my records from years of visiting him did not transfer to the new system. It’s as if I’ve been seeing him for 2 years instead of 10 because no one can access my old test results and records. So much for continuity of care. Now I download all documents in their portal and save locally.
There’s a major dental insurance carrier that finds it perfectly acceptable to “pay” dental offices with prepaid debit/credit cards. Think Greendot, Mastercard, or Visa prepaid cards.
I’m fairly certain my dentistry firm is fighting back in ways I’m not comfortable sharing because I don’t know any facts and would just be speculating, but I do hope they’re sticking it to them.
Sometimes it's up to the consumer to connect the two departments, insurance and the hospital billing, on the phone at the same time. Seems simple but the wait time between the two parties is high, and either one of them will drop off mysteriously.
If the bill is in dispute for too long, you will be sent to collections, and have your credit score degrade.
https://hedgehoglibrarian.com/2023/08/14/executive-function-...
In the same way that tourists bring tourists dollars, sick people bring government dollars.
The real problem is the employment, because then you have not just the industry but its unions lobbying to preserve the inefficiency.
You pay politicians, and you get the outcomes you want.
Every other country in the world calls it bribery.
This is, unfortunately, not true for the majority of "democratic" countries.
They call it "lobby". They avoid to call it "conflict of interest".
Ireland's Regulation of Lobbying Act (2015) [1] is something of a gold standard, which some other countries are considering using as a model [2].
[1]: https://www.lobbying.ie/help-resources/information-for-lobby... [2]: https://www.politico.eu/article/ireland-lobbying-clampdown-m...
I've been reading vol. 3 of Robert Caro's biography of LBJ and the amount of illegal money routed from various Texas oil tycoons via Johnson in support of various causes is astonishing.