A Full-Scale Assault on Medical Debt, Part 3

By BOB HERTZ The only way to fully eliminate medical debt would be a comprehensive single payer plan, which allowed no fees at the point of service. However, such a plan would require setting all prices for all doctors, hospitals, labs, and drug companies. All providers would have to be satisfied – in advance — with what the government is going to pay them on each procedure. Countries like Germany accomplish this through collective bargaining. Japan, France, Taiwan, Israel and Scandinavia also have national fee schedules. However, I do not think you could get all the providers in Toledo to agree on one schedule, much less every provider group in America.  Single payer would also require new income and payroll taxes of at least ten per cent more than we pay now, if we want first-dollar coverage. Most single payer countries have a 10-20% sales tax as well. The Europeans are not shy about taxing the middle class for health care. Based on consumer surveys, there are between seven and ten million households with over $10,000 in medical debt. However, there are about 20 million households who earn over $200,000 a year and would have to pay higher taxes to solve this problem. It took a historic financial crisis, plus a fair amount of Democratic self-delusion, just to get Obamacare passed. One Congress after another has refused to impose relatively tiny cuts in Medicare reimbursements. Therefore ………. the best we can do for now is to a. ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Economics The Business of Health Care Bob Hertz Costs of Care health economics medical debt Source Type: blogs