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”No, this is a terrible (but surprisingly common) argument. ”

Well I don’t know it’s a terrible argument. You confirmed that there is a cost floor. This does create a perverse incentive. Whether it is or any consequence is another matter.

If the perverse incentive is pushing insurance companies to have their costs go up depends entirely on the market conditions, I.e what are typical profit margins w/out ACA and what are the cost of market entry. there could be an equilibrium where insurance companies want their costs to go up.

There is another equilibrium where the allowed profits are far above and therefore ACA limits are meaningless.

Now, you can argue that we’re in the competitive operating regime. Fine. But give me numbers And citations, not adjectives!

To be clear, I’ve never gotten mad at my insurance company. They play a game and they lay out the rules.

It annoying that I have to read reams of papers when I start a new job. But they play within those rules.

My hospital, on the other hand, doesn’t know what they will charge me for a service they will do yesterday.

Ill be satisfied if I knew how much something will cost after I got it done.

Its a first step.

Then, maybe in a distant future, we can move on to reasonable estimates an hour before a non-emergency procedure.

In this utopian future, I will have access to a chart with all the procedures atomistic broken down and codified with a corresponding prices for every code so can add up the cost myself.

Of course this magical cost sheet already exists. I’m just not allowed to see it.

Just today I called my local hospital asking them how much they were going to charge me for an ultrasound Id already preformed. I’m in the middle of a qualifying life event and the new insurance retroactively kicks in.

I need to know how much this will cost to decide which plan is better, mine or my spouses.

The lady didn’t know how much they would charge. This is the only industry where they don’t know how much they’re going to chi argue me after the procedure

An orange farmer has a price for his oranges months before his orange trees blossom.

These geniuses can’t figure out the price after they delivered the product.

BS

Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not in the field.

I thought the ACA put limits on insurance company’s profit margins, by saying that they had to pay out a certain minimum from the total monies collected.

This is a perverse incentive for the insurance company to encourage the medical industry to increase costs.

Am I wrong about the ACA?