In the US, it seems like insurance companies teach doctors how to think.
How many times have we all heard from a doctor "we don't like to do so many tests each year because of costs"
How many times have we all heard from a doctor "we don't like to do so many tests each year because of costs"
It is one huge reason I work as a federal employee -- FTCA helps me feel free to do what I think is right for my patient without worrying nearly as much about getting sued. In my line of work, a tremendous amount of absurd testing is done because there could be a 0.01% chance of missing something serious, and if you see 1,000 pts per year and plan to have a multi-decade career, it's easy to justify almost certainly unnecessary testing.
No, not at all. Insurance exists in plenty of places, without significantly influencing doctors' treatment.
In other words, an insurance market that does not influence doctors’ behavior seems to be a pretty inefficient insurance market.
I’d guess a massive % of the us population is having a different experience than you.
I guess what I am getting at is that insurance sort of makes things worse for everyone here. When a person comes in with good insurance the doctor has incentive to abuse it, artificially driving up costs, making it harder for people with crappy/no insurance to get the treatments they need because insurance won’t cover it. It’s a messy system.
A large part of me would prefer that we abolish private insurance entirely, but I fear that’s not likely in the states.
If the cost would be low there would be no need for an insurance.