You can't put a band-aid on a popped bubble - Jadyn

While researching insurance, I found a lot of articles discussing healthcare and a potential healthcare bubble. 17.7% of the US economy is based on healthcare. Many healthcare experts suspect that there is a healthcare bubble that could burst at any moment. We cannot be certain that there is a bubble because it has not popped yet. However, many people suspect there is a one because healthcare services and medication are so expensive that most people cannot pay for them without insurance. Therefore, health insurance companies have to consistently pay for check-ups, procedures, and medications for each of their clients. Because of this, health insurance is very expensive, and many Americans do not have sufficient coverage. This leads to a lot of debt that has to be paid by the general population and insurance companies.
Some claim that the reason medical prices are so inflated is because health insurance companies work differently than most other insurance companies.  For example, car insurance companies will give their customers the amount of money they think it will take to fix the car. Then, the customers can choose which repair shop to use after comparing prices. Some health insurance companies will only pay for you to go to the doctors and facilities they identify. Typical health insurance companies, however, may allow you to choose which in-network or out-of-network hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies they will pay at a percentage or set co-payment. This allows the customer to pick the medical care from expensive facilities rather than cheaper ones. Often, hospitals will jack-up the cost of treatments when an insurance company is paying for it rather than the patient paying out of pocket. This then inflates the price of health insurance even more, which leads to higher medical bills.
I do not think that the best solution would be for health insurance to work like car insurance because it might force people to get important surgeries at cheap and bad medical facilities. A better solution would be for the government to intervene and standardize the cost of medical treatments so that they cannot upcharge insurance companies.

Sources:
The Bubble of 2018
Will the healthcare bubble burst?
The Upcoming Burst of the Healthcare Bubble

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COVID-19 Blog

As the coronavirus rages on, an important question arises: should western countries aid the so-called "third world," particularly Africa, in combating the pandemic? I believe the answer is no, for two main reasons. My first objection is rather obvious: the United States currently has more confirmed COVID cases than all of Africa combined, and it isn't close. There are several possible explanations, including the warmer weather, but the exact reason isn't necessarily relevant. After a domestic coronavirus response which can only be described as a disaster of earth-shattering proportions, who are we to go on an international health crusade? There are millions of vulnerable Americans who are currently unable to receive adequate care. Our resources need to be going to them first, not abroad, and most certainly not to parasitic, too-big-to-fail corporations. My second objection: when was America's last successful large-scale international intervention, viole...
Read more

SARS CoV-2, COVID-19, and The World

It's no secret that right now the SARS CoV-2 is wreaking havoc across the world. As of today, the United States has surpassed China as the nation with the most cases of the novel coronavirus, with over 86,000 cases in our country to date. This is all pretty crazy, especially considering that this is all because of a pathogen that supposedly started with either bats or pangolins (the only mammal in the world known to have scales) in a small localized region of China. Of course, it's not only the health effects that are wide-reaching; the social effects are also just as prevalent. One of the ways in which the world is rapidly changing in regards to social effects is through panic buying of goods at places such as supermarkets and hypermarkets such as Walmart. However, the good news is that food in general is not going to run out; there may be shortages of certain particular items, nevertheless, as certain nations have curtailed exports. What is bound to change, possibly permanent...
Read more

COVID-19 Blog

As the spread of COVID-19 becomes greater many opinions on how to respond to this global pandemic have surfaced. Just a few months ago much of the population in the United States felt unthreatened by the virus as it spread through China, being concentrated in Wuhan, and later spreading in Europe. It was not until the virus quickly erupted in the United States that we each understood the true severity of this pandemic. Now we are seeing how individuals are being greatly impacted by this virus as we are all being asked to stay home and the everyday parts of our lives have been flipped upside down. In the opinion piece about what responsibility developed countries have for helping less developed countries I both agreed and disagreed. My initial response is that if places, like the United States, are struggling with medical resources how can we even begin to be helpful in less developed countries. Hospitals all throughout the United States are beginning to have to make life or death decisi...
Read more